“Vesti Nedeli” in a story about the successes of Russian troops in Ukraine reported that “Ukrainian soldiers surrender whole units even in a lull” and amazing things are discovered :

“Among those who laid down their arms, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, more than a third were ill with hepatitis A, a fifth with West Nile fever. It can be concluded that the Pentagon's biolaboratories located in Ukraine - the very ones that were supervised by the son of the American President Hunter Biden - were experimenting on soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“The given figures are significantly higher than the average figures. Taking into account the fact that these diseases were actively studied by the Pentagon in the framework of Ukrainian projects, there is reason to believe that the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were involved as volunteers in experiments to assess the tolerance of dangerous infectious diseases, ”said Igor Kirillov, Chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Troops. Protection (RHBZ), lieutenant general.

The assumption that Ukrainian soldiers were infected with infectious diseases before being sent to the front is absurd in itself, as is the unfounded assertion that it was the Pentagon laboratories that were involved in the infections. But the choice of viruses for testing, let's say, is rather bizarre.

What was the purpose of biolaboratories in general to infect volunteers with hepatitis A? It is unlikely to develop a vaccine against this disease: such a vaccine already exists and is being used quite effectively. The development of a cure is also unlikely: although there is no specific drug for hepatitis A, aka Botkin's disease, existing therapies are also quite effective .

The favorite fake of the Russian authorities is the accusation of the United States of creating laboratories on the territory of Ukraine that develop biological weapons; in the plot of Vesti Nedeli, this is not said openly, but the story about the "Pentagon biolaboratories" is perceived as a hint. But the hepatitis A virus as a biological weapon is completely unpromising.

In principle, a disease that could incapacitate enemy soldiers for several weeks (symptoms of hepatitis A - general weakness, deterioration of health, fatigue, pain in muscles and joints - last up to 54 days) would look promising in terms of combat use and could even be considered as a "humane" non-lethal weapon: as a rule, Botkin's disease ends with a complete recovery, restoration of liver functionality and the appearance of stable immunity. But hepatitis A has a very long incubation period - from 14 to 42 days, an average of 28), which reduces the effectiveness of such weapons in a combat situation to zero. In addition, hepatitis A is spread through contaminated food and water, making it quite difficult to infect enemy soldiers.

By the way, it is difficult to understand how it was possible to establish that the prisoners had been ill with hepatitis A: it is possible to detect the presence of immunity, but determining what caused it - the disease or vaccination - is an extremely difficult task. Vaccination against this disease is widely used in Ukraine.

West Nile fever, unlike hepatitis A, was considered at one time as a biological weapon. This is an infectious disease with a mortality rate of about 4.5%; 50% of patients develop serous meningitis. It is spread by mosquitoes and ticks, which, in turn, receive the virus from migratory birds (transmission from person to person is impossible); the incubation period is usually 3-6 days, the disease begins with a sharp rise in temperature to 38-40 ° C. But use in combat conditions is practically unrealistic, since there is no vaccine for this disease; if you somehow release infected insects in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe front line, it will be unrealistic to save the soldiers of your army from infection. In 2012, Professor Natalya Kalinina, Chief Researcher at the Center for International Security at IMEMO RAS, wrote in Rossiyskaya Gazeta:

“The probability of the use of biological weapons (BW) is close to zero. Now there is no point in using BW, just as there is, in fact, no biological weapon itself. <...> In the period before and after World War II, many developed countries had programs to develop biological weapons and technology for their production. The main types of BW are anthrax, plague, cholera, West Nile fever, Lasso fever, etc. But not a single country used it even during the war, since the biopathogen does not distinguish between "us" and "them" and the consequences of its use are poorly predictable. <…>

At the same time, biological weapons are a very inconvenient tool for terrorism. A biological terrorist attack, especially on a global scale, is unlikely. Although there have been attempts. For example, the Aum Shinrikyo sect tried to commit such an act - even before the gas attack on the Tokyo subway. The sectarians infected the plague with fleas and dispersed them in the urban environment. But the results were not achieved. There have long been many terrorist organizations in the world, including quite wealthy ones. However, no one has yet succeeded in creating and effectively using biological weapons.”

In Ukraine, West Nile fever is extremely rare; in the summer of 2021, only 5 cases were detected , with one of the cases infected in Cameroon. The statement that 20% of the captured soldiers fell ill with it looks absolutely fantastic: in order to believe this, one would have to assume that for some reason it is precisely those soldiers who participated in the tests who are surrendering en masse.