Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric on social media claim that Ukrainian soldiers sent abroad for treatment and refugees contracted infections in Ukrainian hospitals and then spread these diseases to the EU. They say that these infections are resistant to most antibiotics, and this supposedly proves that the United States is testing bioweapons in Ukraine. In doing so, they refer to an article by the Financial Times.

The message was noticed by the fact-checkers of the VoxCheck project. They found out that this was not true. An October 2 Financial Times article titled “Ukrainian infections show rising threat of antibiotic resistance” stated that Russia's invasion of Ukraine back in 2014 contributed to the rise in drug-resistant infections in Western Europe. As the authors point out, this could be due to the toxicity of heavy metals in the balls, which caused injuries and wounds that could lead to infections, as well as the indiscriminate use of antibiotics. The situation was also complicated by the fact that medical facilities in combat regions were often damaged, tests to determine the necessary antibiotic were largely lacking, and local residents forced to leave the region could carry these diseases. The article also pointed out that after the start of the full-scale invasion, due to the arrival of Ukrainian military and refugees in EU countries, there was indeed an increase in the number of drug-resistant infections. In particular, they explain this by the fact that in some regions the healthcare system was overloaded.

The VoxCheck experts once again note that there are no US biological laboratories in Ukraine, and no country is engaged in the production or testing of biological weapons here. They also found that antibiotic resistance is an international trend that occurs due to the limited number of effective drugs available and the low number of new drug developments. According to the publication, even states that spend a lot of money on financing the healthcare system cannot cope with this problem.

Propagandists spread this message to discredit Ukrainians and create artificial panic about their presence in Europe. They say that helping Ukrainians is dangerous. Detector Media also wrote about other messages and fakes with which Russia is trying to discredit both the Ukrainian military and refugees.