The United Nations Security Council met for a fiery session on Saturday at the request of Russia - which used the opportunity to falsely accuse Ukraine of developing chemical weapons.
The lie was immediately rebuffed by the United States, United Kingdom and the UN itself - but China, which has so far refused to criticise Russia's invasion of its neighbour, said the claims should be given a fair hearing and that the United States needed to prove they were false.
Russia's ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, claimed at least 30 laboratories in Ukraine were working on "lethal diseases."
"We discover it a truly shocking facts of emergency cleaned up by the Kyiv regime of the traces of a military biological program, which is being implemented by Kyiv with its support of the United States Ministry of Defense," he told the meeting.
Ukraine, like many countries, including Russia, does have public health labs. But they're not manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.
The deliberate disinformation campaign left the US Ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, aghast.
"I know that you expect me to respond but we're not going to give any more airtime to the lies that you're hearing today," she told the Council.
Ukraine's ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, also took a swing at Russia's attempt to spread disinformation.
"Ukraine runs a health system that is totally in full compliance with its international obligations and in full cooperation with all relevant international organizations," he said.
“The rest is is a bunch of insane delirium of Putin and his henchmen, including the Russian mission to the United Nations.”
SHARE ME