MOSCOW

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Wednesday that documents suggest "components of bioweapons were being developed in Ukraine."

Speaking at a weekly briefing in Moscow, Maria Zakharova said the Russian armed forces received evidence of the development of biological weapon components by Ukraine under US guidance from the employees of Ukraine's biological labs.

She stressed that such activities violate the Biological Weapons Convention, and that Russia may open a hearing on the issue.

The US leadership has to make public military biological programs that were implemented in Ukraine, she demanded.

"In a short time, the Ministry of Defense of the United States of America and the Administration of the President of the United States are obliged to inform the international community and make it official those military-biological programs that were implemented in Ukraine," she stressed.

Zakharova also questioned what happened to the biological materials, taken out from the labs -- whether they were destroyed or not.

"Who was in charge of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine for many years? Remember, right? From which country did this wonderful doctor come? Who headed the Ukrainian Ministry of Health? I remember very well -- from the American continent."

Earlier, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland confirmed that there are US-led biological research facilities in Ukraine.

Kyiv and Washington are now working to prevent the materials accumulated there from falling into the hands of Russian forces, she said.