US bioresearch activity began in Ukraine immediately after 1991 with the Nunn-Lugar programme run by the Pentagon’s Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), according to Yarovaya. “The U.S. Embassy in Kiev actually worked as a Pentagon outpost, sending biological samples, including viruses and pathogens, by diplomatic mail both ways, to hide the truth from the rest of the world.” Yarovaya called it “a monstrous abuse of diplomatic channels.”