Putin ‘testing weapons on humans’ in horror Russian ‘death lab’ | World | News
Russia operates a military laboratory where researchers conduct lethal experiments on human subjects to refine chemical and biological weapons, according to independent investigators and Western defence experts. The findings come from independent Russian media and Western experts, detailing a program where the state uses its citizens as subjects for testing high-potency toxins.
At the centre of such activities is the State Research Institute of Military Medicine—the sole Russian military facility officially authorised to experiment on live human subjects. Its stated goal is to identify the “most effective artillery to destroy or disable enemy manpower”.
In its initial year, the centre logged more than 300 individuals—predominantly low-income Russians recruited via substantial cash incentives—participating in tests involving weapons, medications, and vaccines, reports indicate.
Former British Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment commander Hamish de Bretton-Gordon OBE told The Sun that the revelations align with established state actions: “He has already fed countless troops into his meat grinder, leaving over 1.5 million Russian casualties. The value of life in Russia is not how we understand it in the UK and the West. If they think they can get the best tests by using humans, they seem pretty happy to do it.”
Mr de Bretton-Gordon compared the programme to historical Nazi-era experiments, noting that the participants are typically drawn from impoverished and vulnerable populations, including ethnic minorities from eastern regions or prisoners offered financial incentives: “It is not dissimilar to the time where the Nazis considered some people of less value than others.”
The disclosures coincide with UK sanctions levied against seven Russian scientists and two research institutes linked to the development of Novichok and the toxin Epibatidine. The latter agent was utilised in the 2024 assassination of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in an Arctic penal colony.
Novichok, the nerve agent deployed in Salisbury in 2018, resulted in the death of British citizen Dawn Sturgess and the poisoning of former intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter. A quantity as small as a fraction of a grain of salt can prove fatal, and the container recovered by investigators held sufficient volume to cause widespread casualties.
Ukrainian authorities have documented over 13,000 instances of chemical agent usage by Russian forces since the 2022 invasion, with deployment frequencies escalating sharply in 2024 and remaining elevated through the first half of 2026.
As frontlines fluctuate, security analysts express concern regarding potential escalation, including the deployment of persistent nerve agents via unmanned aerial vehicles. Mr de Bretton-Gordon noted that Russia maintains the primary industrial capacity for such production: “We are in a hybrid war with Russia.
“Biological and chemical weapons are something we need to be on top of. The Russian bear is severely wounded – and a wounded animal is always at its most dangerous just before it dies.”
