Alarming reports have emerged accusing Russia of engaging in acts of “biological terrorism” by allegedly using anthrax-infected livestock as a weapon against Ukraine. Ukrainian officials claim that Russian forces are abandoning cattle carcasses dangerously close to populated areas, posing a severe threat to civilian populations.
According to Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence (DIU), these contaminated animal remains have been discovered at makeshift burial sites across the Kherson region. With around 50 of these sites identified, 10 have been highlighted as particularly hazardous to residents’ health and safety.
The DIU characterized this situation as “the deliberate or negligent creation of conditions for an anthrax outbreak,” condemning it as yet another crime by the Russian aggressors. Ukrainian authorities have labeled this act as biological warfare, asserting that it endangers people living in the temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine.
Officials in the conquered southeastern territories, encompassing regions near Askania-Nova, Skadovsk, and Zaliznyi Port, point out that the Russian forces are opting to bury the infected animals rather than destroying them through incineration, which would mitigate the risk of spreading the disease.
In some alarming cases, the sites where these carcasses are discarded lie less than a kilometer—about 0.6 miles—from where people reside, intensifying the potential health concern for Ukrainians living nearby.
Occupying Russian forces have failed to put up protective fencing or take other biosecurity measures to ensure that there is no spread of anthrax, a serious bacterial disease that can be fatal to humans.
The toxic anthrax spores can survive in soil for decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Inhaling anthrax is almost always fatal.
The DIU said it could not rule out the possibility that Russia created these hazardous sites “to stage a false-flag operation.”
“In addition to a potential kinetic strike on sites containing anthrax-contaminated animal burial grounds, such a scenario could also involve an information and propaganda campaign aimed at accusing Ukraine of developing or using so-called ‘biological’ weapons,” DIU said.
The alarming allegations come as Russia has ramped up its attacks on Ukraine, with new drone and missile strikes targeting the capital, Kyiv.
At least a dozen were killed in the city overnight Monday, officials said.
“These are residential buildings. Places where people slept and lived their ordinary lives,” said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration in a post on Telegram.
Last week, a combined Russian attack killed at least 31 people in Kyiv.
Zelensky renewed calls for Western partners to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses, particularly by supplying more Patriot missiles — saying that failing to replenish them only emboldens Russia to prolong its four-year war.