BANNER: Screenshot of an RT report on the December 2024 briefing by the Deputy Head of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection troops of the Armed Forces of Russia, Aleksei Rtischev. (Source: @RT_com/archived)

In the first edition of the DFRLab’s Narrative Warfare series, released on the first anniversary of Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we examined narratives that claimed Ukraine had developed biological weapons that were sponsored by the West. Now, on the third anniversary of the war, we reexamined this narrative and found the conspiracies and false stories about Western biolabs operating in Ukraine and abroad are as alive as ever.

The claims of US-funded biolabs operating in Ukraine emerged as early as 2009, with several articles outlining the signing of an agreement between the American Department of Defense and the Ukrainian Ministry of Health to jointly counteract biological threats. This agreement has since been used to spin a tale about the joint development of biological weapons in US-funded labs in Ukraine. While these stories disappeared from the information environment almost entirely by 2013, they reappeared in a significant way in 2016, 2020, and then again in 2022.  

The biolabs narrative was active preceding Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and in the immediate aftermath of it. However, in late 2024, the narrative again proliferated with intensity, signified by its cross-platform and cross-audience penetration. In November and December 2024, social media experienced an initial uptick in the number of messages related to biolabs, with relevant messages shared actively on both X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram. The discussion among these accounts was supported by official Russian government agencies and well-known media personalities, adding to the perceived validity of the claims. The narrative is further supported by the existence of a partnership between Ukraine and the United States in countering biological threats through the Biological Threat Reduction Program, providing propagandists with a foundation from which to launch their narratives.

The 2024 surge of messages about US-funded biolabs focused on two key narratives: first, the transfer of the majority of US biolab activity to Africa from Ukraine, and second, allegations that bird flu originated in one of the Ukrainian labs. The narrative alleging that the US is founding and operating biolabs in Africa first emerged en masse in the summer and fall of 2024, with claims promoted by the late General Igor Kirillov, former head of the Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear Defense Troops of the Russian Armed Forces. However, the narrative petered out over time, with propagandists moving on to focus on news related to chemical and nuclear weapon use.

Further, the narrative names certain African countries as being involved in operating US biolabs, including South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana, among others, and alleges they are involved in conducting gain-of-function research for pathogens. Gain-of-function research involves experiments that alter the properties of a virus or other pathogen to study its potential effects on pathogenicity, transmissibility, or host range.

The wave of Africa-related narratives specified some of the pathogens that are allegedly being developed on the continent, they include yellow fever, monkeypox and Rift Valley fever, with some posts also speculating about the possibility of the new strains of avian flu originating in these labs. The narrative also claimed that pathogens that are of interest to the United States are eventually elevated to the status of pandemics, with US-based companies later profiting from vaccine development. This line of messaging undermines the validity of future messaging—potentially lifesaving—regarding the spread of viral infections.

The assassination of General Kirillov in December 2024 also played a role in elevating the biolab narrative, with Telegram channels claiming his exposition of alleged pathogen development and the targeting of Africa could have played a role in his death. Kirillov and his aide were killed by a bomb placed in an electric scooter that remotely detonated when the men came in close proximity. The Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) reportedly took credit for the operation. While the majority of international and even Russian media outlets covering the operation focused on the details of the assassination or Kirillov’s role in chemical weapon use in Ukraine, the more conspiracy-minded Telegram channels and users have used it as a way to validate the biolab and bioweapon development claims, also using it as a way to stress the alleged role of NATO and the United States in the assassination. The inclusion of the United States and NATO in the accusations also serves to discredit the presence of Western actors in the African continent and lays the groundwork for future influence campaigns in the region.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, propagandists and conspiracists on social media rallied narratives around Gain-of-function research, claiming the involvement of the US government in research that allowed the virus to travel faster. Recently, the term has also been used by the Russian defense ministry, which claimed it found samples of an especially deadly strain of bird flu (H5N1) that could infect humans in a US-funded biolab in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine. While the narrative has not reached virality, it remains timely as the number of cases of human infections of bird flu in the United States continues to rise (69 cases reported as of February 21, 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with no human-to-human transmission).

While the bird flu narrative has not gained as much popularity as the still dominant narrative about Covid-19 originating in one of the US-funded biolabs, it benefitted from the timing of its emergence. Prior to the election and in the lead-up to the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, the narrative was shared in connection to conspiratorial ideas that avian flu was an attempt to undermine the election results or transfer of power via a new manufactured pandemic.

The re-emergence of the biolab narrative as a pre-eminent topic across social media platforms shows the continued receptiveness of audiences to this conspiratorial message and the ongoing attempts at undermining Ukraine in the eyes of the public. Pushed to the forefront by the key voices in Russia, these narratives have quickly gained notoriety and validity in the eyes of the target audience.

With dramatic shifts in the political and information landscapes globally, there is an opportunity for malicious actors to cement some of their preferred key narratives, especially when building on already existing stories. This creates a need for a deeper understanding of the already established meta-narratives and the ability to pinpoint the emergence of new stories that could settle into the mainstream of propagandist messaging.

Iryna Adam and Roman Osadchuk, “Ukrainian biolabs: the never-ending narrative,” Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), February 24, 2025, https://dfrlab.org/2025/02/24/ukrainian-biolabs-the-never-ending-narrative/.