evidence: Vozrozhdeniya Island formed from the end of the 16th to the beginning of 17th centuries due to the decrease of the Aral Sea level. Vozrozhdeniya Island was first discovered in 1848 during a Russian marine expedition of the Aral Sea commanded by naval officer and investigator Alexei Ivanovitch Butakov. One of the members who served as the expedition’s artist was Taras Shevchenko. [...] Shortly after, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan asked Russia, who agreed, to dismantle and decontaminate the site within three years but its disinterest in the endeavour coincided with a sudden lack of project financing led to no action. Shavkat Khamrakulov, ambassador of Uzbekistan to the United States, revealed that Uzbekistan did not know that Vozrozhdeniya Island was a biological testing site and disposal area until informed of it by the U.S. sometime in the 1990s.