The U.S. has created biological laboratories in Ukraine for the purpose of developing biological weapons for the Pentagon, claimed Robert Kennedy Jr., a Democratic candidate for the 2024 presidential election.

“Those bioweapons are using all kinds of new synthetic biology and CRISPR technology and genetic engineering techniques that were not available to a previous generation,” Kennedy Jr. told conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson on the X social network.

“When the Patriot Act reopened the biolabs arms race in 2001, the Pentagon began putting a lot of money into bioweapons,” he added. “But they were nervous at that time because if you violate the Geneva Convention, it’s a hanging offense.”

The U.S. has denied operating biowarfare labs in Ukraine.

Russia’s defense ministry has previously released evidence it said pointed to a U.S.-financed military biological program being developed in Ukraine. It claimed that Ukrainian bio laboratories had urgently destroyed hazardous pathogens following Moscow’s “special military operation” in February last year.