130 individuals have been rescued from bombed Mariupol theater, however tons of nonetheless below the rubble

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield slammed Russia’s makes an attempt to lie about allegations of biological weapons in Ukraine as soon as once more Friday morning. 

“As I stated one week in the past, Ukraine doesn’t have a organic weapons program. There aren’t any Ukrainian organic weapons laboratories – not close to Russia’s border, not wherever. There are solely public well being amenities, proudly, and I say proudly, supported and acknowledged by the US authorities, the World Well being Group, and different governments and worldwide establishments,” Thomas-Greenfield stated in ready remarks to the UN Safety Council. 

Ukrainian and US officers have repeatedly debunked claims of US-supported organic packages in Ukraine. 

Friday’s emergency session was known as by Russia after they introduced Thursday that they might not name for a vote on their humanitarian draft decision on Ukraine. 

Thomas-Greenfield as a substitute stated “it’s Russia that has a well-documented historical past of utilizing chemical weapons” and that Friday’s assembly is ‘the results of their isolation on this Council and on the world stage.” 

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia claimed Friday that new particulars present proof of US-supported organic weapons in Ukraine. 

“Over the past week, new particulars have come to mild which permits to state that the parts for organic weapons have been being created on the territory of Ukraine,” Nebenzia stated in translated remarks to the council. “We are able to see that the American colleagues weren’t serving to, as they declare, the Ukrainian Ministry of Well being, however moderately the Ukrainian Ministry of Protection.”

Nebenzia claimed {that a} new doc distributed to the council Friday morning “confirms direct funding and supervision of the Pentagon and its protection risk discount company of army and organic tasks in Ukraine.” 

“The consultant of the US State Division proceed to muddle the data and verify that US allegedly doesn’t function in any organic laboratories within the territory of Ukraine, however the info present in any other case,” the Russian ambassador claimed. 

Extra context: There are US-funded biolabs in Ukraine, however they aren’t constructing bioweapons. Really, it is the other: A part of the rationale for his or her creation was to secure old Soviet weapons left behind within the former Soviet republics. The State Division has described the claims as nonsense — and the US and Ukrainian governments have repeatedly, and for years now, tried to bat down conspiracy theories concerning the labs and spoken concerning the work that’s truly being executed in them.

Russia’s falsehoods about labs like this haven’t been restricted to Ukraine, and the nation has been pushing varied bits of disinformation concerning the US and organic weapons because the Chilly Warfare.

CNN’s Kiely Westhoff and Donie O’Sullivan contributed reporting to this publish.