Ukraine intelligence alleges hidden Russian biolab site

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, the Main Directorate of Intelligence, known as HUR, said Friday that Russia has built a secret military complex of biological laboratories on an island in the Tver region, where it experiments with dangerous viruses and other pathogens on behalf of the armed forces.

HUR identified the facility as the “Center for Experimental Physiology,” located on Lisiy Island in the Vyshny Volochyok Reservoir, roughly 120 km (75 miles) northwest of Tver. The agency said the site operates under the cover of veterinary and physiological research. HUR did not publish documents, imagery, or other evidence to support the claim, and Russian authorities have not commented on it.

According to HUR, the waters around the island have been closed to fishing, swimming, and boating since 2023 under a designation as a “specially protected territory of regional significance.” The reservoir supplies drinking water to several towns, including Vyshny Volochyok, and feeds the Tvertsa River, a tributary of the Volga.

HUR said that if dangerous pathogens or chemicals from the laboratories entered the reservoir, the consequences of any resulting outbreak could be severe not only for the surrounding region but for Russia as a whole. The agency did not say it had evidence that such a release has occurred.

The agency said the facility was built on the personal order of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a project of particular importance, described internally as necessary to “ensure the defense capability and security of Russia.” HUR said the complex is formally structured under the Federal Medical-Biological Agency, a Russian federal body known as FMBA that oversees medical services for workers in nuclear, chemical, and other hazardous industries.

HUR said the site is under heightened security, including air defense units assigned to protect it from aerial attack, and that Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov has been made responsible for the facility’s security regime. The agency said Russian soldiers assigned to guard the site have privately expressed fear of exposure to unknown pathogens, without naming any individuals or providing direct statements from them.

HUR pointed to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease among cattle that began in Russia in early 2026 as a possible, though unconfirmed, consequence of failed experiments at facilities like the one on Lisiy Island. That outbreak has been documented independently. It began in Siberia’s Novosibirsk region in February 2026, was initially attributed by Russian officials to pasteurellosis, and later spread west toward the Urals and the border with Kazakhstan and China, prompting mass culling operations, regional export bans, and a U.S. Department of Agriculture report questioning Moscow’s official explanation. Russian authorities have not confirmed foot-and-mouth disease as the cause, and independent reporting on the outbreak has focused on Siberian regions, roughly 2,500 km (1,550 miles) from Tver Oblast, with no established link to any laboratory facility.