WASHINGTON — Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the U.S. intelligence services, endorsed one of Russia’s main justifications in 2022 for invading Ukraine: dozens of U.S.-funded biolabs working on some of the world’s nastiest pathogens.

Moscow claimed that Ukraine was using the labs to create deadly bioweapons similar to COVID-19 that could be used against Russia, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had no choice but to invade to protect his country.

In fact, the labs are public and part of an international effort to control outbreaks and stop bioweapons.

Gabbard, a military veteran and a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, later said she wasn’t accusing the U.S. or Ukraine of anything nefarious and was just voicing concerns about protecting the labs.

But to critics in the U.S., including lawmakers in both parties, the comments showed a disturbing willingness to parrot Russian propaganda — a tendency that has earned Gabbard praise on Russian state TV.

Gabbard’s past comments supportive of Russia — as well as secret meetings with Syria’s president, a close ally of Russia and Iran — are attracting fresh scrutiny from Democrats and national security analysts who fear that as Trump’s director of national intelligence she could give Russia a major win, undercut Ukraine, weaken national security and endanger intelligence ties with allies.

“Gabbard, like Gaetz, is like a hand grenade ready to explode,” former Trump national security adviser John Bolton said of Matt Gaetz, the former Florida congressman and Trump’s pick for attorney general.

Gabbard says American assistance for Ukraine jeopardizes global security by antagonizing Russia. She has criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as corrupt and has expressed sympathy for Russia’s position, given Ukraine’s desire to join NATO, the Western military alliance.

“This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns,” she posted on Twitter at the start of Russia’s invasion.

Democrats say Gabbard’s comments signify a pro-Russian bent that poses a problem for U.S. national security if she is confirmed by the Senate. “Do you really want her to have all of the secrets of the United States and our defense intelligence agencies when she has so clearly been in Putin’s pocket?” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said on MSNBC. “That just has to be a hard no.”

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to coordinate the nation’s intelligence agencies and act as the president’s main intelligence adviser.

Gabbard and the Trump transition team did not respond to questions seeking comment. She has defended her actions and said her military service — in the Army National Guard for more than two decades and she deployed to Iraq and Kuwait — has made her skeptical about military interventions.

She also has defended Trump’s relationship with autocrats like Putin, saying it shows Trump has “the courage to meet with adversaries, dictators, allies and partners alike in the pursuit of peace, seeing war as a last resort.”

Gabbard’s own meetings with Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2017 angered many of her then-fellow Democrats. They said her visit helped legitimize a leader accused of war crimes and who has served as a proxy and host for Russia and Iran in the Middle East.

Assad welcomed Russia’s military into Syria in 2015 to crush a popular uprising against him. Russian forces and Iranian-allied militias have remained, using Syria as a base for attacks on U.S. troops and their allies.

Gabbard ran for president in 2020 before dropping out and endorsing Democrat Joe Biden. Two years later, she left the Democratic Party to become an independent.