Trump offers Putin lifeline as Russia tries to contain deadly pneumonic plague

Published: 04:09 EDT, 6 October 2026 | Updated: 04:20 EDT, 6 October 2026

Donald Trump has offered to help Vladimir Putin as Russia battles to contain an outbreak of pneumonic plague in Siberia.

More than 200 people are under medical observation and four hospitals have been closed for a three-week quarantine in Irkutsk, a city near Russia’s border with Mongolia, following the death of lab worker Daria Shipilova.

The 28-year-old technician reportedly fell ill after accidentally breaking a test tube containing plague bacteria at Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia.

Helping hand: ‘We’ll help them,’ said Donald Trump of the plague outbreak in Russia

Shipilova spent days in hospital before passing away from ‘pneumonia of unknown etiology,’ according to Russian officials.

But around 60 of her colleagues remain isolated in the institute amid fears that Shipilova may have caught and died from pneumonic plague.

Officials in Moscow have, however, been keen to downplay the risk of a widespread transmission.

Cover-up rumors: Putin’s regime is seeking to downplay the death of a lab technician

Speaking on Monday, Trump revealed the U.S. will ‘help’ Russia cope with the outbreak of the disease.

He said: ‘Well, we’re looking at it very strongly. We just heard about it, and they call it pneumonia.

‘And pneumonia, you know, years ago you could treat pneumonia easier. The microbes and the germs have gotten stronger disproportionately, but we’ll help them.’

Protective clothing: Health officials wearing hazmat suits in the Irkutsk region

Pneumonic plague attacks the lungs and passes easily from person to person through respiratory particles, though it can be cured with antibiotics when treated promptly.

Russia’s health watchdog claims expanded testing found no micro-organisms linked to Shipilova’s work and denies there was any accident at the institute.

Yet Alexei Tsydenov, the head of neighboring republic Buryatia, first confirmed Shipilova had died of plague before later claiming she only ‘possibly’ may have contracted the disease.

Authorities canceled public events in Irkutsk and law enforcement reportedly opened a criminal investigation into health-safety violations.

Amid the media frenzy, the regional governor Igor Kobzev described the situation as stable.

Shock death: Darya Shipilova, 28, died of pneumonic plague after ‘breaking a test tube’

Meanwhile, Marco Rubio said Monday that Washington is ‘watching and monitoring it closely.’

The U.S. Secretary Of State admitted that while such a suspected outbreak could ‘quickly spread’ there was no immediate cause for concern, particularly because there are no direct commercial flights between the U.S. and Russia.

‘There’s very limited travel between the U.S. and Russia, obviously,’ Rubio told reporters on Monday before traveling to Iceland.

‘But, like anything else, something like that gets out and could quickly spread. So we’re watching and monitoring it closely.

‘I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause to just keep an eye on it. And we’re doing that,’ he added.

Disease scientists: A researcher from Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute during a field trip

Vladimir Putin’s regime is seeking to downplay Ms Shipilova’s death on October 1, yet widespread suspicion of a state cover-up is rapidly spreading.

It was revealed today that more than 60 colleagues of the young scientist will remain locked inside her Siberian research institute for days, sleeping on floors and chairs despite none testing positive for the plague.

Up to five hospitals in the Irkutsk area are in ‘epidemic’ mode, according to reports, with hundreds of staff and patients barred from leaving.

City Clinical Hospitals No1, No3, and No10 and the Ivano-Matreninskaya Children’s Hospital have been closed for a three-week quarantine, according to Lyudi Baikala.

Relatives of a woman giving birth at one of Irkutsk’s maternity hospitals also reported to the outlet that it had imposed a quarantine.

A source in the healthcare sector told the publication that Irkutsk doctors are ‘openly talking about plague’.

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