US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has launched a review of more than 120 overseas biological laboratories funded by American taxpayers, reopening a politically charged debate over US-supported research facilities in countries including Ukraine and fuelling renewed scrutiny of Washington’s biosafety oversight policies, reported The New York Post. The claims of a large number of these labs being located on the territory of Ukraine had for years been debunked as Russian propaganda by outlets such as the BBC and Guardian.

According to statements published by The New York Post and confirmed by officials quoted in several US media outlets, the review will examine where the laboratories are located, what pathogens they contain and the type of research conducted under US-funded programmes. The probe follows an executive order by US President Donald Trump aimed at restricting so-called “gain-of-function” research overseas.

Gabbard said the investigation was intended to identify potentially dangerous biological research that could threaten public health if inadequately supervised. She argued that the COVID-19 pandemic had exposed the global risks associated with pathogen research and accused previous US officials of lacking transparency about American support for foreign laboratories.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the facilities under review span more than 30 countries and include more than 40 laboratories in Ukraine that could face heightened security risks because of the ongoing war with Russia. Officials said many of the laboratories were linked to the Pentagon’s Cooperative Threat Reduction programme, which was originally created after the collapse of the Soviet Union to secure dangerous biological and chemical materials and improve disease surveillance capabilities.

The existence of US-supported biological laboratories in Ukraine is not new and has previously been acknowledged publicly by both Washington and Kyiv. However, the issue became highly politicised after Russia repeatedly alleged that the facilities were involved in military biological research — claims denied by Ukraine, the United States and Western governments, which said the laboratories were focused on public health, disease monitoring and biosecurity cooperation.

Critics of the programme have long argued that oversight of US-funded biological research abroad has been too loose, particularly where funding is channelled through multiple federal agencies, contractors and sub-grantees. They say the structure makes it difficult for the American public — and at times even lawmakers — to determine precisely what kinds of experiments are being conducted and under what level of supervision.

Officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) reportedly said that ongoing research and clinical activity at some of the laboratories had raised “serious ethical, financial and security concerns”, adding to pressure for a broader review of overseas biological programmes.

The issue became politically explosive shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022. In March that year, the Biden administration rejected claims about the existence of US-owned or US-operated “chemical or biological laboratories” in Ukraine, describing such allegations as part of Russian and Chinese disinformation campaigns.

The denials followed remarks by then-US undersecretary of state for political affairs Victoria Nuland during congressional testimony, in which she acknowledged that Ukraine possessed “biological research facilities” and said Washington was concerned Russian forces might attempt to seize control of them.

Officials serving under Trump have since argued that the rapid rebuttals formed part of a wider “information resilience” strategy designed to shape public perception and counter foreign influence operations, while simultaneously minimising attention on Washington’s links to overseas pathogen research programmes.

Gabbard told The New York Post that “entities within the Biden administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of these US-funded and supported biolabs and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth.”

Last year, Trump signed an executive order prohibiting federal funding for gain-of-function research in China, Iran and other countries deemed to lack sufficient oversight mechanisms. The White House said the move was driven by concerns that dangerous pathogens could escape from laboratories through negligence or inadequate safety procedures, citing lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.