into the streets and lead to this led to the most serious humanitarian crisis in europe since the 2nd world war. more russia is the one that for the past 15, this hasn't been done. daily bombing, mario pollen, so many other ukrainian cities and civilian installations in violation of international monetary law is russia, which is killing more. you korean m as your innocence. neither disinformation nor the veto can mask this harsh reality. neither will is the laws adopted by mos good to muzzle the press and the voice is against the war in russia. russia can fool neither russians nor the world. thank you. erica will nathan fallon, santa barney, he, i thank the representative of france and i know the floor to the represents them of the united kingdom. thank you mr. president. russia has

today brought in to the security council, a series of wild, completely baseless and irresponsible conspiracy theories. let me put it diplomatically. they are utter nonsense. there is not a shred of credible evidence that ukraine has a biological weapons program. ukraine is a state party to the biological and talks in weapons convention in good standing. as we've heard, the research facilities are established, facilities set up to deal with public health hazards. the un brief is to day have confirmed this. this is yet another lie in russia's disinformation campaign. they said they would not invade ukraine.

they then invaded foreign minister lover of then said they haven't invaded. and he repeated this absurdity yesterday. our whole pack of nice, they said ukraine was preparing a dirty bomb and was a lie to they said yesterday that a pregnant woman staged her injuries in the married paul hospital bombing. that was a grotesque lie rusher is sinking to new depths to day. but this council must not get dragged down with it. so let's get back to the facts. russia is invading ukraine in violation of international law. russia is killing hundreds of civilians,

through indiscriminate shelling of ukrainian cities. it is using cluster munitions and pho, barrick rockets, weapons designed to inflict maximum damage wherever they are deployed. it is targeting hospitals and schools and committing war crimes. thousands of russian and ukrainian soldiers are dead, deaths that will shatter the lives of families. they've left behind. 2.5000000 ukrainians have become refugees. 1000000 children forced to flee from president putin's invasion. this is a war of choice that russia needs to end colleagues.

russia has broken its commitments under the charter. but we must not let it subvert the multi lateral system itself. as the un said to day, russia is now putting it threat. the global framework for peace and security. the security council is responsible for addressing many serious conflicts around the world. we have important work to do we do not sit in this chamber to be an audience for russia's domestic propaganda. and we should not allow russia to abuse its permanent seat to spread disinformation and lies and pervert the purpose of the security council. let us resolve to day that this council remains focused on the real threats to international peace and

security. i think u. s. government to that, i think the representative i getting them for her statement. i give the floor to the representative of india. thank you mister president. i thank you as g luck of it, so and you as due to car loan for the briefings. we have noted the reason statements by states and why that information regarding the biological activities relating to ukraine. in this context, we would like to underline the importance attached by india to the biological and toxin weapons convention b, t, w. c. as a key global and non discriminatory disarmament convention prohibiting an entire

category of weapons of mass destructions. it is important to ensured full and effective implementation of the b t, w. c. in letter and spirit. they also believe that any matters relating to obligations under the b t w. c. should be addressed asked, but the provisions of the convention and through consultation and co operation between the parties concerned mister president, we have repeatedly expressed serious concern over the ongoing situation in ukraine . we sincerely hope that the ongoing dyadic to negotiations between russia and ukraine would lead to secession of hostilities. that is no other alternator, except the part of diplomacy and dialogue. the dyad humanitarian situation needs immediate. an urgent attention. he once again call upon member states to adhere to the principles of the un charter and international law and respect the sovereignty

and integrity of states. i thank you was to president escort method, a lender letter. i sent it of, of india for his statement to me. i now give the floor to the representative of mexico. gras. yes. senora. thank you, mr. president. i will say most last, but he think that we thank with 30 or the law under secretary general rosemary decarlo and hi representative that can lead to for their briefings. and we take note of the information they shared with us. we also listened very glad, closely to the statement made by the secretary general spokesperson loud, whereby on yolanda the new world health organization has no knowledge of any activity yet from or by the ukrainian government. when did he buy that did

battle. so what does the us have to hide the words there? we heard a short while ago from the russian ambassador to the un varsity in events via, as he went through. what russia sees as the evidence that they have been gathering, as they see it of indications of biological and chemical agents coming from ukraine . went on to say that the u. s. was overseeing about 30 labs overseas, but the u. s. is refusing to place them under international supervision. and he warned biological threats no no borders. we had a very different narrative though, from the u. s. ambassador to the united nations, or even the thomas or greenfield, who said russia was lying and spreading misinformation. she went on to categorically, say, ukraine does not have biological weapons program, and there are no labs supported by the u. s. in ukraine. close to the russian

border or elsewhere. she accused russia of planning a false flag in action by calling this hearing it un saying russia has a track record of accusing others or the violations they are committing up on the floor. let's bring in our guests to analyze all was is still going on in the un security council. richard, good 3 is the coordinating editor of cb w events. a project that focuses on understanding policies on issues relating to chemical and biological warfare joins us now from bath. in the u. k. good to have you with us. so obviously, a lot of different conflicting presentations about the issue of chemical weapons in ukraine. what did we learn from is to me now commit to the un hi representative for the some meant affairs in her presentation as to what evidence the u. n. has

gathered about that issue. yes. as well as, and she pointed out that there is a, a difficulty with the biological weapons convention. and there was no multi lateral verification system. but she did highlight that there were no evidence the un head of any biological or chemical weapons program, ukraine. and she did highlight that there are other mechanisms within the biological weapons kabbage, the article 5 consultations, article 6, taking a complaint to the security council that russia hasn't used. although russia did say in its presentation, it was of the right to use them. so for, according to her statement, they don't see that there is, there is a lot of evidence or any evidence of biological weapons programs in ukraine. one has to ask than how do we get these very 2 different narratives on, on that very issue? well, i think that the narratives come from the,

the global political challenges, all countries facing each other. i have to say is somebody who was very skeptical, for example, 20 years ago about u. s. claims in relation to iraq, that the i would come down on the us side of the explanation. i have followed the, the programs for the public health laboratories that have gone on in a number of countries across the form of soviet union, outside of russia. they were set up with this arrangement was set up with great fanfare in 2005 as one of the 1st oversee strips of a young surgical barack obama was in a ceremony in care of a, you know, to highlight that there was this great public health activity going on so that they're really not a secret activity. i think the examples given by the russians were interesting and

they were clearly chosen to be able to trying, give a worrying concern. and i mean, he highlighted a project he described does u. p for, i don't know the project directly, but it talked about the tracing migratory birds because of the potential to spread h 5 in one flu. well, around different parts of the world. there are a number of problems with understanding what the local migratory patterns on if there were an outbreak of avian influenza understanding those things would be of public health concerns. i'm not seeing anybody since the 1940s examining influenza was a potential biological. what sorts of a peculiar example to give? and of course, you're referring to the ceiling event. there's presentation view and the russian ambassador to you. and he talks about o transfer of ecto, parasites and birds near harris on talked about instances and how to call that the russian said they were, have seen of soldiers dying of swine flu. when you look into those things,

how do they relate to the potential for a biological chemical weapons program? he didn't highlight as far as i caught from the interpretation they swine flu cases being in the year that there was swine flu going round the world, which was 2009 with the outbreak that had originally mexico. so it is very difficult to draw too much from that. yes, local parasites would be of interest, or, or parasites local to ukraine, be interest to public health researchers elsewhere because you're trying to understand how these parasites behave. one of the figures he gave, the russian master gave was suggesting that in the cleaning up of laboratories, that $320.00 containers of pathogens, disease, causing microorganisms had to be cleared up. and he suggested that was a sign of

a military activity. but actually when there has been a research into biological weapons, both the former soviet union in the united states, they ended up very quickly focusing on only a very few strains of the diseases they were looking at to have that number off of samples that you are keeping and separate containers cuz we've got mixing because you need to keep the samples pure. really does strike me as much war of evidence for public health programs than of research program of how to misuse these passages. these disease causing microorganisms. okay, you know, the russian and batter also made a point about international supervision of chemical and biological programs. there are conventions around how much in react in, in actual reality. how much international supervision is there over programs like this. well, on the chemical weapons side quite a lot, there's a,

a very large or body based in, hey, called the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons. it has hundreds of staff. and it can do arrangement sections including on what happens with an industry and the biological weapons convention, which was greed 20 odd years earlier. there is no international verification system . the o. p. c. w, as i said, has hundreds of stars, the little unit that supports the biological weapons convention in geneva has 3 staff. they are excellent staff, but the honestly cannot do everything that the p. c. w. verification that is the international supervision has been a controversial issue within the biological weapons convention. and as the russian ambassador pointed out, or if there has been u. s. opposition to discussion all for vacation in 2001. there were negotiations

for a legally binding instrument which the americans brought to a halt by a century saying there was nothing out of those negotiations. they could accept this as being probably the most controversial issue within the biological weapons convention for the last 20 years without international supervision, without an institution or it is, it is difficult for an international body to be able to say absolutely that the world is free of biological weapons, given your understanding, i know you have a, you know, a decent history in this topic and this issue, how easy would it be for anyone to use those kinds of weapons in the ukraine scenario right now, how alarm should the world be? oh, well, all of those, the simplest of level, something like toxic industrial chemicals such as chlorine which is likely to be in a fair supply across ukraine. i can be misused as

a chemical weapon just as it has been done in syria. a chemical weapon is essentially simply getting something poisonous into contact with people who will suffer from it is worry if you look at the strategies and tactics that have been used in syria, they are very, very different from any kind of chemical weapons doctrine that either the super powers had during the cold war before these weapons were prohibited. and really, the syrian case was much more about undermining the morale of the civilian population. in that sort of circumstance, those sorts of weapons, sadly, could be very effective within ukraine because her ukraine's defense is reliant at the moment on high levels of morale, amongst the civilian population. and dumb

we, you did mention syria. there of course we did have allegations of chemical weapons being used. i think there was even if we think back to it, the o. p. c. w organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons did do investigation and came to a conclusion that industrial chlorine was used. they couldn't say of course, or they didn't wanna say or couldn't say who was using it if they're a fear that at the use of chemical weapons is because the sort of the taboo around using is being broken. oh that is a considerable sir, not just syria, the use of poisonous assassination weapons. also under my son to abou in syria. there have been a number of controls. he's about investigations, most of the media attention as being to the investigation of an incident in a place called duma in 2018 or that investigation did have a number of problems associated with it. not least the difficulties of getting

investigators on the ground in the area took 10 days or 2 weeks or something like that. but there's been a number of other investigations earlier that have also concluded that chemical weapons have been used and wall there has been some difficulty in specifying who much of use. and there are a number of attacks that have involved the dropping of barrels of chlorine from the sky, from helicopters. and there has been no suggestion that any of the rebel forces in syria have access to helicopters. so that leads to the conclusions that they were from the syrian arab armed forces. they were, you know, the investigations are ongoing, and ada, there was another report out from the a p c, w, early this year. all of those reports are available nearby c w website or i think good talking to thank you very much for sharing your insights and analysis on this one. let's bring in mike hannah,

he's been watching this unfold at the un security counter. mike, i guess it's not a huge surprise to hear very different narrative depending on who you listen to right now in the security council. right indeed is very different narratives indeed, but some councilmembers making very clear that they were willing to lead russia. go ahead with this meeting to as they put it, expose russia's illegal actions, actions taking place in ukraine that many members contend could amount to war crimes. so some of the members welcoming this russian attempt to get under discussion and alleged military biological program by ukraine with the backing of the united states. now that particular allegation was rejected with complete scorn by a number of members. and albania, for example, described it as false fabricated and distorted. we heard from the united states that this is something they predicted

a number of weeks ago. and the concern is that this could be a prelude to russia itself, using some form of military biological program. and then blaming ukrainian along with the u. s. forces for doing so. so a great deal of the differences in this ongoing meeting, or you have, as you said, 2 totally conflicting narratives. but in the middle, what you do have is we heard from the high representative for disarmament and she stated absolutely bluntly, there is no military biological program being operated by ukraine with or without us support. yes, we have that clearly. mike, we've seen on the international scene, of course, a lot of are particularly western countries putting sanctions, downgrading their ties with russia. how much support or isolation is there for russia diplomatically right now in places like the un security council?

well, it is extreme and let's just take outside the security council for a start. and nato, for example, has come together in a way that we haven't seen in a number of decades. particularly, given the recent years where nato appeared to be fracturing to an extent, particularly with regard to the trump administration. and the u. s. is role in nato that has changed fundamentally. and there is a unity among later members, it hasn't been seen, as i said, for decades here within the security council, there is an absolute block of resistance to the russian action in ukraine. there may be some apologise for that, but very, very quietly. so china has not made any really strong ugh, comments of condemnation. however, it has abstained in a previous votes on the subject. so certainly there is a degree of unity in what one moves away from the 15 members of the security

council and looks at the wider a general assembly. it is absolutely hugely pro ukraine, anti russian intervention. you're talking about percentages of perhaps 90 percent of the u. n ga, condemns rushes action in ukraine. so there is a great deal of agreement. there's a great deal of unity both within the united nations as an organization and to a degree within the security council. or i, thanks so much mike. we're going to go back now to the united nations security council, i believe the owner of sensitive ambassador fly china, though, is about to address lesson ukraine. it is still very rapidly evolving waiver really in complexity. and as i said, i can see what is mostly needed now, continues to be too intensified to chromatic efforts. reduce tension and to bring the ukrainian issue back to the track of the political settlement as soon as possible, while making efforts to prevent

a massive large scale humanitarian crisis. stop fighting on hostilities is a wide spread, a desire of the international community. peace negotiations are the only viable means to achieve that goal. recently, russia, ukraine have held multiple rounds of direct talks and the 2 foreign ministers held a high level meeting yesterday. all these are positive steps towards achieving piece the intel national community should continue to encourage and support russia and ukraine in their negotiations and create unnecessary environment and conditions for such. and his talks, china will continue to work with the international community. and the play is part in de escalate the situation and the seeking piece with mr. president walton china and attaches great importance to bio safety and security

and consistently stands for complete prohibition and a thorough destruction of all w. m. d 's, including bio logical weapons, firmly opposes the development, possession, and use of biological and chemical weapons by any country. and under any circumstances. and encourage those countries that have not yet heard destroyed, there's dog piles of chemical weapons to do so. as soon as possible, the purposes and the principles of the biological weapons convention should be strictly of health. felt logical weapons, weapons of mass destruction, and information and at least on bio for military activities should trigger high attention from the international community. china has noted with

a concern read over the information released by russia to upheld the biological weapons convention is an obligation for all state parties. the concerns raised by russia should be properly addressed. china urges read up the parties to effectively implement their obligation under the convention, provide a comprehensive clarification and accept a multilateral verification. we have taken note of the press report that the w h o has advised it to the ukrainian government to destroy the passage ins located in those labs. in order to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. we look forward to be receiving more specific information on this under the current situation and for the sake of public health, we call for insuring the safety and security of read of until authorities with mr. president of the you, as the representative knew her statement meant,

made a groundless allegations against china, which were formerly reject all the international community have been racing concerns about the u. s. military where logical activities they have around the world, $336.00, a laboratories. this number comes from the information provided by the u. s. a. to the conference of parties of the b c w, the u. s. senate, they are full transparency if they believe the rental information is fake. oh, they can do is to provide us with relevant data provides clarification so that the international community community can draw a conclusion, but self. thank you mister president. as good as i would like to find the representative of china and to give the for, to brazil, nor i let or i,

so we just heard there from the permanent ramps then dave of china to the united nations security council. calling basically for more investigation and research into the issue. china of course has taken a rather cautious stance to this her whole issue and the, the war in ukraine. it has not supported the western efforts, obviously, to pursue sanctions and punish russia for what the west seas as a russian unjustified wire. russian invasion of ukraine chinese have seen as a very on characterize it in a very different light and manner. this guy will be alright, what we'll do now. let's listen into what the us president joe biden talked about short while ago slot an hour ago. and he was warning that russia will pay a terrible price if it does use chemical weapons. the issue of course,

which the un security council discussing that we're looking at right now. biden was speaking as he announced hashes sanctions on moscow. and he said the us and its allies would also strip russia of its trading status, ferment normal trading spaces that could lead to higher tariffs on impulse. this than 20 said each of our nation's going to take steps to deny most favored nation status. to russia. a most favored nation status designation means 2 countries have agreed to trade with each other under the best possible terms. low terse, few barriers, trade and the highest possible import. hello. and that's talk now. kimberly how could at the white house and kimberly, that a ratcheting up of further us measures to target russia.

yeah, and to be clearer, sammy, this is not a done deal. what this is, is the u. s. president, calling on congress to make this move in coordination with the european union and g 7 nations. and so this is a little different than some of the sanctions that we've seen in recent days and weeks that the u. s. president could do unilaterally through the treasury department, for example, but certainly this is something that is expected to push a had given the sort of bipartisan support for this action and condemnation of russian invasion of ukraine. and what i would do is essentially end russia's status as a most favored nation, which is a classification, the world trade organization. and it would, and sort of, it's a exemption from tariffs on things like caviar and diamonds, as well as gag vodka and gas. and so this would have a tremendous impact. in fact, the u. s. president saying it would really level

a crushing blow to russia's economy. and in fact, the u. s. president tweeting just a moment ago that already the.