DNI Releases Map of 120 US-Funded Biolabs Across 30 Countries

Newsmax
By Jim Thomas
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Friday declassified intelligence records that her office said document longstanding U.S. taxpayer funding for more than 120 biological research laboratories in over 30 countries.

The list includes facilities in Ukraine that the intelligence community has warned remain vulnerable to seizure or attack amid the ongoing war with Russia.

The release, made days before Gabbard’s scheduled departure from the post on June 30, consisted of partially redacted slides identifying lab locations, research functions, and biosafety concerns.

One declassified assessment singled out the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine in Kharkiv, citing the presence of dangerous pathogens, deficiencies in handling Brucella bacteria, and historical ties to Soviet-era biological research.

Pathogens referenced in the materials included anthrax, Ebola, and swine fever.

Gabbard framed the disclosure as a correction of the public record.

“Despite the obvious potential for catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs can have, politicians, so-called health professionals like Dr. Fauci, and entities within the Biden administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of U.S.-funded and supported biolabs, and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth,” she said in a statement.

Her office said the records had been “knowingly withheld” by “powerful people” who branded those raising the issue as foreign assets.

The ODNI tied the release to President Trump’s Executive Order 14292, signed May 25, 2025, which terminated federal funding for gain-of-function research worldwide.

Gabbard said she had issued new guidance directing the intelligence community to intensify collection on the facilities and that the directive was already yielding information on clinical trials raising “ethical, financial, and security concerns.”

Much of the underlying funding stream traces to the decades-old Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which has financed efforts to secure Cold War-era Soviet biological and chemical research sites across the former USSR.

The Defense Department and other agencies have long supported overseas disease research, and Russia has for years accused Washington of running biological weapons programs at such facilities, claims the State Department in 2023 called part of a disinformation campaign tied to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Kyiv pushed back the following day.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington said cooperation with the United States had been aimed “exclusively at strengthening the capabilities of the public health system, epidemiological surveillance, laboratory diagnostics, biosafety, and biosecurity,” and called the work “ordinary civilian activities” unrelated to military objectives.

The timing of Gabbard’s release, just before her exit from the ODNI, has drawn questions about its purpose, and outside observers have noted the declassified material does not clearly establish facts beyond what was already public.

Jim Thomas
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.