The funds that the UN has raised so far this year to help the people in need across the globe make up just 20% of the amount that the US and its allies spent on weapons for Ukraine, Russia’s envoy to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said on Thursday.

“The generosity of Western donors with regard to the crisis in Ukraine, which they themselves provoked, looks duplicitous. Whenever it comes to Syria, Yemen, African countries, our Western colleagues either have no money or allocate it very reluctantly and in small portions,” he said at a meeting of the UN Security Council.

“But on Ukraine, on weapons alone, the US and its allies have already spent as much as the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs requested in 2023 to provide humanitarian relief to all people in need around the world – about $55 billion,” the diplomat said. “Of this amount, by the way, to date OCHA has received only 20%. Imagine how many people in the world could be helped if Western donors really wanted it.”

“But no, it is more important for them to spend money on weapons, enriching their weapons companies,” the envoy said. “The total amount of financial, military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, according to the National Bank of that country, exceeded $120 billion in 2022 alone. As they say, feel the Western priorities”.

Source: Agencies