Typically known for its noxious anti-abortion coverage, LifeSiteNews is now boosting a Russian-backed conspiracy theory about U.S.-linked biolabs in Ukraine, falsely claiming that presidential son Hunter Biden is connected to those labs. 

In recent weeks, right-wing media have circulated false rumors accusing the United States and Ukraine of collaborating to produce biological weapons in so-called “biolabs.” This claim traces back to a Russian disinformation effort meant to justify the invasion of Ukraine, which has recently been shared by fringe far-right online forums and media figures. Fox News host Tucker Carlson even brought the conspiracy theory to prime time in multiple segments. 

Throughout March, LifeSiteNews repeatedly echoed the claim, jumping on the right-wing obsession with Hunter Biden’s laptop and recent reporting from the National Pulse, which claimed that emails from Biden's laptop prove he is involved in funding Ukrainian biolabs. In its coverage of the conspiracy theory, LifeSiteNews promoted an “investigation” conducted by Jack Maxey, a host of the platform’s Faith and Reason show. Maxey, who recently appeared on a QAnon-affiliated livestream and previously co-hosted War Room: Pandemic with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, now claimed to have found original evidence of Biden funding Ukrainian biolabs via Biden’s “laptop from hell.” LifeSiteNews has also elevated the Russian state media outlet TASS, directly quoting the news agency and Russian government officials about Biden’s supposed links to Ukrainian “biological laboratories” without pushback.

LifeSiteNews’ coverage of the Ukrainian biolabs conspiracy theory is just the latest trend of right-wing media parroting Russian propaganda to American audiences — much to Kremlin's advantage as it has promoted Fox’s pro-Russia coverage to justify its attacks against Ukraine. 

Here is how LifeSiteNews, which describes itself as the “#1 pro-life news website," has peddled the biolabs conspiracy theory and other pro-Russian propaganda in recent weeks:

• A March 9 article promoted reporting from the far-right National Pulse claiming to have “unearthed a since-deleted 2010 article showing that then-Sen. Barack Obama had been involved” in the development of biolabs in Odessa in 2005. In reality, the U.S.-Ukrainian agreement announced publicly by Obama and the late Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) was part of an effort “to work jointly to prevent the spread of biological weapons.” Additionally, LifeSiteNews pushed claims that the U.S. government is dishonestly representing its alleged “involvement in the laboratories, or the content of the labs themselves." It also quoted a Russian Foreign Ministry official saying that “the Kiev regime was found to have been concealing traces of a military biological programme implemented with funding from the United States Department of Defence,” including “components of biological weapons … being developed in Ukrainian laboratories.”
• On March 16, LifeSiteNews defended Carlson and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) for pushing the conspiracy theory during a Fox segment after the latter was publicly criticized by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) for “parroting false Russian propaganda” about Ukrainian biolabs. The article also amplified Carlson’s claims that anyone who tries to discuss the biolabs is “called a tool of a foreign country” for “trying their very hardest with the greatest level of sincerity to protect the United States.”
• In a March 23 article, LifeSiteNews repeated Maxey’s claims to have retrieved emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop connecting him to Ukrainian biolabs. The article embedded a clip from Maxey’s appearance on QAnon supporter Ann Vandersteel’s show Steel Truth, where he claimed to have “clear 100 percent” evidence that the Department of Defense is contracting a company connected to Biden and involved in Ukrainian biolabs “as a dark operation from U.S. intelligence and U.S. health services.” LifeSiteNews concluded “that his findings are actually going to vindicate the Russians with some of their claims about the U.S.-funded bio labs in Ukraine.” 
• In its March 29 piece on Biden’s laptop, LifeSiteNews cited the Russian news agency TASS and quoted Vyacheslav Volodin, a Russian official and former aide to dictator Vladimir Putin, saying that “US President Joe Biden himself is involved in the creation of biolaboratories in Ukraine” and that “Hunter Biden funded research and the implementation of the United States’ military biological program.” 
• On March 31, LifeSiteNews again cited TASS in an article bolstering claims from Russian officials pushing the conspiracy theory, announcing the Russian Defense Ministry’s possession of evidence confirming “​​the president’s son played an important role in funding pathogen research at biolabs in Ukraine.” The article also quoted a Russian military official’s false claim suggesting that the U.S. was using Ukraine “as a testing ground for testing components of biological weapons.”