Fact Check: No, There Are No U.S.-Funded Bioweapons Labs in Ukraine

Several viral social Facebook posts are falsely claiming that the United States has biological weapon laboratories in Ukraine. Examples of widely shared Facebook posts can be seen here, here, and here.

But the rumor hasn’t just been spreading on Facebook. 

Infowars, a website that promotes conspiracy theories and fake news owned by known conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, published a story on February 24 headlined: “Russian Strikes Targeting US-Run Bio-Labs in Ukraine?” The article highlighted a tweet thread by a now-suspended account, which tweeted about supposed evidence proving that the United States does in fact have “biolabs” in Ukraine. The article highlights a similar tweet, which makes a similar baseless allegation. 

The Infowars story also claimed: “Evidently there are several US bio-labs in Ukraine under the auspices of the US State Department’s Biological Threat Reduction Program, an initiative where the US partners with other countries ‘to counter the threat of outbreaks (deliberate, accidental, or natural) of the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases.’”