The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Friday on the alleged manufacture of biological weapons in Ukraine at the request of Moscow, whose credibility on chemical weapons was questioned during a session on the Syria.

Russia on Thursday accused the United States of funding research into the development of biological weapons in Ukraine, which has faced an onslaught of tens of thousands of Russian troops since February 24.

Both Washington and Kiev have denied the claims, with the United States saying they were a sign that Moscow may soon use the weapons itself.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Russia’s claims in a video address Thursday, saying, “No one is developing chemicals or other weapons of mass destruction” in Ukraine.

Western states have accused Russia of employing a ruse by accusing their adversaries and the United States of developing biological and chemical weapons to prepare the ground for their possible use in Ukraine – something Moscow has been accused of doing in Syria.

At a monthly Security Council meeting on the use of chemical weapons in Syria – a matter that remains unresolved and continues to suffer from a lack of information from Damascus denounced by the UN – Washington and London mentioned Ukraine.

“The Russian Federation has repeatedly spread disinformation regarding Syria’s repeated use of chemical weapons,” said US deputy envoy to the UN Richard Mills.

“The recent web of lies that Russia has unleashed in an attempt to justify the premeditated and unjustified war it has undertaken against Ukraine should make it clear, once and for all, that Russia cannot be trusted either. Russia when talking about the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Mills’ British counterpart, James Kariuki, denounced Moscow’s attack on Ukraine and said “the parallels with Russian action in Syria are clear”.

“Unfortunately, the comparison extends to chemical weapons as well, as we see the familiar specter of Russian chemical weapons misinformation rearing its head in Ukraine.”

In 2018, Moscow accused the United States of secretly conducting biological weapons experiments at a lab in Georgia, another former Soviet republic that, like Ukraine, has ambitions to join NATO and the European Union.

Friday’s Security Council meeting is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. (1600 GMT).