✈️ #OTD in 1937, three Soviet aviators set off on the legendary non-stop flight from Moscow to Vancouver via the North Pole. The crew – commander Valery Chkalov, co-pilot Georgy Baidukov and navigator Alexander Belyakov – pursued an ambitious goal: to connect the continents along the shortest route, across the Arctic Ocean, for the first time in history.

🧊 Soviet aircraft designer Andrei Tupolev developed the ANT-25, a single-engine aircraft with an especially wide wingspan, specifically for this endeavour and for other long-haul flights. Due to this design, the plane could take more fuel, and had a better capability to glide.

🧊 The flight took a total of 63 hours and 16 minutes. The Arctic weather with its low temperatures gave the crew the greatest trouble. The ice from the cockpit windows had to be cut off by hand with a sheath knife. Because of the clouds, the crew had to either pilot the plane blindly or change course, and overspent about 300 litres of fuel.

🧊 Initially, the crew planned to land in San Francisco, but due to excessive fuel consumption, it was decided to land in Vancouver. They failed to break the world flight range record, but in less than a month this was achieved by another Soviet crew under the command of Mikhail Gromov.

🧊 Despite this, Valery Chkalov and his crew's flight became a major event in the history of world aviation. It showcased Soviet achievement in advanced aircraft construction, and proved to the whole world the exceptional professionalism and courage of Soviet aviators.

🤝 The feat of the three pilots was widely covered by the press, both in the Soviet Union and in America. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt personally received the crew in the Oval Office of the White House. The transpolar flight contributed to the establishment of friendly relations between the two countries, and paved the way for fruitful cooperation between the USSR and the United States during World War II.

⚡️ Briefing by Chief of Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops General Lieutenant Igor Kirillov on US military-biological activity

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◽️ On US Walter Reed Army Institute of Research branches

The Institute has four branches all over the world, every one of them has a high-containment laboratory and a network of departments, which gather samples and transport strains.

Documents acquired during the special military operation prove the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research connection to the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency and its key contractor – the Metabiota company.

◽️ On Kharkov-based Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine involvement in American UP-8 and P-444 programs

This involved studying the migration routes of migratory birds and selecting and transmitting strains of avian influenza virus with high epidemic potential and capable of crossing the interspecies barrier abroad.

The consequences of such programmes for epizootic in the territory of the Russian Federation are yet to be evaluated.

In the result of infected birds migration from Ukraine to Russia, avian influenza morbidity rate has increased significantly.

◽️ On incidents at American high-containment laboratories

The unacceptably high risk of accidents in U.S. biolaboratories is one of the reasons for their withdrawal from national jurisdiction and transfer to the territory of third countries, including Ukraine.

This explains the deterioration of the epidemic situation in their locations, the emergence of diseases that are not typical of these regions and their vectors.

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👉 The United States, with the support of its allies, are conducting large-scale military-biological research aimed at finding effective methods of using infectious disease agents.

We see this as another argument in favour of an international investigation of U.S. military and biological activities.