After accusing the U.S. of producing bioweapons in Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defense has added another feather-ruffling theory to their accusation: That the U.S. is training birds in Ukraine to spread deadly diseases among Russian citizens.

The claim is just one of many false claims that Russia has offered to justify its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, including the baseless allegation that Ukrainian officials were committing genocide against ethnic Russians.

Major General Igor Konashenkov, the chief spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, discussed the plot Thursday on RIA Novosti, a TV media outlet controlled by the Russian government.

Konashenkov claimed that U.S. forces had planned to infect birds with a spreadable form of the H5N1 flu strain "with a mortality rate of 50 percent" as well as Newcastle disease, the privately-owned Russian news outlet Pravda reported.

Newcastle disease is a contagious, fatal bird disease affecting the respiratory, nervous and digestive systems, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

For complete report, Daniel Villarreal, "Russian Conspiracy Theory Says U.S. Training Birds to Spread Bio Weapons", Newsweek, March 11, 2022 

Image Source: Twitter/DRM Journal, March 11, 2022.