The Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation conducts tests on humans. They test drugs and ammunition, for example, artillery shells, Project found out.

Specialists from the Research Testing Institute of Military Medicine of the Ministry of Defense (GNIII VM MO) are testing ammunition and drugs on military volunteers, according to the “Project” investigation released on April 13. The Agency talks about it briefly.

According to the Project, in 2015 the institute became the only institution of the Ministry of Defense that has the right to conduct research on humans. The director of the institute, Sergei Chepur, spoke about this in the article “Features of organizing and conducting clinical and military trials with the participation of military personnel,” published in the Military Journal in 2019.

The publication said that the medications being tested at the institute can have an “effect on higher nervous activity,” so animal studies are insufficient—and “healthy military volunteers” are involved in them.

It is unclear what exactly is included in the testing program of the Institute of Military Medicine. The article only provided general words about what is being studied in human trials:

• new types of weapons, military and special equipment, as well as equipment,
• assess the damaging effects of new types of weapons,
• means of pharmacological support and correction of the condition of military personnel (including certain drugs that increase performance),
• means of protection against extreme and damaging factors.

In 2018, the institute opened a scientific and clinical center with 100 beds, it has an intensive care unit with three beds, therapeutic and surgical departments, an anesthesiology and resuscitation group. In the first year, study participants received more than “300 observations of military personnel” who participated in drug, vaccine and weapons trials.

The head of the institute, Sergei Chepur, spoke about one of the tests while speaking at the conference “Current Problems of Defense and Security,” which was held in St. Petersburg in April 2023. According to Chepur, artillery ammunition was tested on volunteers to determine the type and power of the projectile needed “to destroy or incapacitate enemy personnel.”

The head of the institute said that at the training ground where the tests took place, military fortifications of Russia and NATO were imitated. To determine the effectiveness of ammunition, the test subjects “were examined for the state of psychophysiological and cardiovascular activity right at the test site, took the necessary samples, and used a special scale to determine the dependence of the dysfunction of the body on the firing distance from guns of 122 and 300 millimeters caliber.”

During the tests, volunteers developed problems with blood pressure, including critical ones, changes in the vascular and nervous systems began, and depression of sensory and logical functions began. “In the future, this will make it possible to use ammunition to suppress enemy personnel with a guaranteed infliction of damage not lower than the average level of severity,” says the conference materials cited by the Project.

The Research Institute of Military Medicine of the Russian Ministry of Defense, as noted by the Agency, is considered the most important participant in the ongoing chemical weapons development program in Russia. The director of the institute, Sergei Chepur, repeatedly communicated with GRU employees, including during the preparation of the assassination attempt on the Skripals using Novichok, according to an investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider, Der Spiegel and Radio Liberty in 2020.

Cover photo: Stanislav Krasilnikov / RIA Novosti / Sputnik / IMAGO / SNA / Scanpix / LETA