The United States has helped build and financially support more than 40 biolaboratories in Ukraine, including a facility in Kharkiv that likely contains "dangerous pathogens," according to documents declassified by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and made public on June 12.
The labs in Ukraine "could be at risk of compromise due to the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war," Gabbard, who is exiting the Trump administration later in the month to help care for her husband after he was diagnosed with cancer, said in a video statement.
Officials said at the time that some labs had researched highly contagious pathogens but provided few other details.
One of the documents released on Friday says that the U.S.-supported Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine in Kharkiv "probably houses at least some dangerous pathogens and almost certainly remains vulnerable to long-standing information operations, seizure, or damage."
As of the early 2010s, the institute held hundreds of pathogens and was one of more than 40 labs in Ukraine that received assistance under a Department of Defense program aimed at reducing biological threats, the document stated, adding, "Although the facility has updated some areas with modern equipment and infrastructure, [it] as recently as 2019 had at least some biosafety and biosecurity deficiencies—most notable in rooms handling contagious Brucella bacteria—according to [redacted] [redacted] reporting."
Another U.S. intelligence document released by Gabbard says that the facilities in Ukraine have worked on pathogens such as anthrax, Ebola, and the SARS coronavirus, and that the United States has trained Ukrainian scientists on biocontainment.
A third file states that the United States invested $9.1 million in four of the labs, including the Ukrainian Research Antiplague Institute in Odesa.
The Department of Defense said in a 2022 document released previously that the United States had invested approximately $200 million since 2005 to support work at 46 Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and diagnostic sites.
Intelligence officials did not provide information on labs outside Ukraine, but said the evidence they released ran counter to claims by individuals who falsely claimed the U.S.-funded biolabs do not exist.
"ODNI and I will continue working closely with partners across the U.S. government to identify exactly where these labs are and what pathogens they contain to end dangerous gain-of-function research that threatens the health and well-being of the American people and people around the world," Gabbard stated.