Anthrax Discovered in Ukraine: Conditions in parts of Ukraine increasingly resemble those of the First World War, as both sides have dug trench lines, and artillery duels are now all too commonplace. Reports circulated this week that anthrax has been discovered in a Russian trench line and a small number of soldiers were infected. Yet, this isn’t a case of biological or chemical warfare.
Rather, the UK’s Telegraph newspaper reported that the soldiers had unearthed a burial site for cattle while digging a defensive line in southern Ukraine in the Kherson Oblast. The unit was ordered to immediate quarantine, while two soldiers were admitted to a hospital in the occupied city of Melitopol.
The unit is believed to have been digging the trenches as part of an effort to reinforce their defenses, ahead of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive, when it uncovered the burial site. Anthrax is a bacterial infection that can be spread via infected animal carcasses and food.
The disease was endemic across much of the Soviet Union in the 20th century, especially in Ukraine due to the intense cattle farming that was conducted in the region. According to the Telegraph, more than 10,000 cases were registered in humans at the beginning of the 20th century, but the number decreased due to improved health standards.
Anthrax as a Bio Weapon
Anthrax is thought to have originated in Egypt and Mesopotamia and is believed to have been what caused the fifth of the 10 plagues during the 10 plagues of Egypt. It was described as a sickness that affected horses, cattle, sheep, camels, and oxen.
There have been suggestions that anthrax may have contributed to the fall of Rome in the 5th century.
Though a vaccine was created for animals by Louis Pasteur in 1881, it wasn’t until the 1950s that a vaccine was created for humans. However, even as efforts were made to stop its spread, in the early 20th century, military planners considered how it could be weaponized.
There is also evidence that the German Army may have employed anthrax to secretly infect livestock and animal feed traded to Allied Nations by neutral partners including Argentina. In the 1930s, Japan also experimented with how anthrax could be employed as a biological weapon. Prisoners in Japanese-occupied Manchuria were infected with anthrax, and it was later discovered that as part of the program, Japan attacked at least 11 Chinese cities with Anthrax and other biological agents.
The UK’s Devious Plans
Both the United States and the UK experimented with anthrax and other bioweapons during the Second World War, and the British military even devised the insidiously-named “Operation Vegetarian.” The plan was to disseminate linseed cakes infected with anthrax spores onto the fields of Germany. The thinking was that the cakes would be eaten by cattle, which would be consumed by the civilian population, likely resulting in the deaths of millions. It would have also wiped out the majority of Germany’s cattle resulting in a massive food shortage for the rest of the nation’s population.
The British had gone all in on biological warfare. A secret lab was even set up that began mass-producing anthrax for another operation where spores were to be dropped directly over German cities.
By 1944, some 70 billion doses of anthrax were produced, enough to kill the world 30 times over. Fortunately, the British finally came to reason that while the weapons could have the potential to destroy the German people’s capacity to persist, in the process, it would have made large swaths of Europe uninhabitable for generations to come.
However, testing had been conducted on Gruinard Island, which wasn’t fully decontaminated until the 1990s – and one of the post-war findings was how long anthrax remains in the environment after its release.
Clearly, some Russian soldiers have also discovered that fact the hard way.
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Author Experience and Expertise:
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
