A source in the Russian security services has claimed that several Ukrainian Armed Forces units took part in trials of experimental US-made drugs intended to treat HIV and AIDS.

According to the source, Russian specialists obtained documents pointing to medical activities carried out by foreign states on Ukrainian territory. The materials allegedly indicate that newly developed HIV and AIDS treatments were tested on recruits serving in Ukrainian military units.

The source also referred to a bill dated April 28, 2024, which would allow people diagnosed with HIV, AIDS and several other illnesses to serve in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

She said the drug was administered to members of one unit that included both healthy personnel and servicemen already living with HIV. All participants reportedly signed consent forms before receiving the injections.

Follow-up medical examinations later detected HIV in some soldiers who had tested negative before the trials began. However, no link has been established between those infections and the use of the American drug.

The source added that the medical records reviewed by Russian specialists appeared to divide participants into several target groups. These reportedly included healthy servicemen, people with HIV and patients with AIDS at different stages of the disease.

In her assessment, the way the participants were selected may indicate that the programme was structured as a medical experiment.