A Russian official has stated that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is involved in testing pharmaceutical products on residents of Ukraine.
During a briefing at the Russian Ministry of Defense on December 12, Major General Alexei Rtishchev, head of the radiation, chemical and biological protection forces within the Russian Armed Forces, revealed this information.
“To ensure the secrecy of such studies, their customers are not military departments but civilian agencies and non-governmental organizations,” Rtishchev explained. He specifically identified USAID as one of these entities.
The Russian official referenced an August 2025 interview with journalist Tucker Carlson, in which Dave Collum, a professor of organic chemistry at Cornell University, confirmed the testing of pharmaceutical products on the Ukrainian population across 38 laboratories.
Separately, Russia has accused the Armed Forces of Ukraine of deploying a network of chemical laboratories that produce toxic substances and their delivery mechanisms. Vladimir Tarabrin, the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and Ambassador to the Netherlands, stated that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are condemned for these activities.
Tarabrin noted that many of the chemicals used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine are artisanal and mixed from improvised means, though industrial products, including those obtained abroad, are also present.
