The head of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) office in Ukraine who was responsible for coordination of military biological projects in the country and for personnel selection. Wintrol headed DTRA projects in Ukraine until 2021 at the US Embassy in Kiev’s DTRA office. “Under her guidance, several projects (UP-4, UP-6 and UP-8) were implemented. They envisaged research into deadly pathogens, such as anthrax, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever and leptospirosis,” according to Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological protection force.
Emails published by the MoD “revealed she directly supervised experiments with deadly pathogens, including the UP-2 Project for “mapping highly infectious diseases in Ukraine,” including anthrax; the UP-4 Project, described as a “risk assessment of particularly dangerous pathogens transmitted by birds in Ukraine during migration”; the UP-8 Project studying “spread of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus and hantaviruses in Ukraine and the potential need for differential diagnosis of patients with suspected leptospirosis. Previously released documents showed she also oversaw Project P-782, conducting research into the transmission of diseases through bats”, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Wintrol moved to Chemical Security and Elimination (CSE) in early 2021, the Telegraph reports. “According to a DTRA publication, CSE was formerly known as the Chemical Weapons Elimination (CWE) program and the Chemical Weapons Destruction (CWD) program. The effort “started in 1992 to build the capacity of the states of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) to reduce the threat from chemical weapons (CW) by securing and eliminating CW stockpiles, chemical research capabilities, and production facilities, while also redirecting scientists to peaceful purposes,” the agency said.”
