🇷🇺🇺🇳 Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN:

🎙 Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at a United Nations Security Council Briefing on Western Arms Supplies to Ukraine

📍New York, December 20, 2024

💬 Zelensky is ignoring the interests and opinions of his citizens, a significant number of whom are now speaking against new escalatory steps, since such steps may lead to the destruction of new enterprises and energy facilities.

❌ As a result, many experts now question Ukraine's ability to survive the winter; however, the former comedian, who has lost his legitimacy but is still clinging on power, is ready to gamble with his country that he has held hostage, and sacrifice all of its citizens.

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• According to the Ukrainian military commanders themselves, by the end of November, the number of deserters amounted to 200 thousand people, with 85 thousand Ukrainian military deserting in November alone, which is three times as high as in October.

• Ukrainian military personnel which are being trained abroad are also deserting – in Poland alone, an average of 12 people leave the training grounds every month. France reported that half of the Anna Kievskaya brigade, which had been trained in that country, left the battlefield and the rest of the brigade was disbanded. And this is the elite of the Ukrainian army.

• The losses of the Ukrainian army in 2024 exceeded 560 thousand servicemen (killed or wounded), and since the beginning of 2022 that number is over one million.

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• Ukraine has become a genuine gold mine for the military-industrial complex of the the US, UK and their allies. But it is American companies that are profiting the most from the conflict.

• According to the latest data, half of total arms sales in 2023 were processed by 41 US corporations out of the top 100. They received $317 billion, or 50% of global arms sales revenues.

• Overall, the revenues of the world's 100 major weapons manufacturers in 2023 reached $632 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

• It would be naive to expect that these unscrupulous traders, who have tasted the flavor of lucre, will give up riding this gravy train for the sake of those miserable Ukrainians.

• After the conflict started, 25 foreign lobby and consulting companies began to represent Ukraine's interests free of charge. <…>

• Apart from making money on frantic sales of their weapons to the Ukrainians (well, they are in a hurry as they need to pull it off before Trump's inauguration), they also have no scruples about making money on American citizens by driving up the prices of the military industry products.

⚠️ Despite the fact that it can be detrimental to the well-being of Americans, the outgoing Democratic administration is playing up with the arms corporations. <…>

• We have already discussed in detail at the last meeting why this criminal crew, including the man in the green 'fufaika' (sweatshirt), is so afraid of the audit of the funds provided to Ukraine, which was promised by the Trump team.

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• It is hard to say where Ukraine will end up with all these smoke and mirrors of its illegitimate leader, who is erroneously asserting that he is ready for peace, while in fact doing everything to escalate the conflict.

• As we have repeatedly stated, peace for him is the worst possible scenario, because if it the case he will have to stand for elections and subsequently lose power, since, according to some polls, he enjoys only 11% support of Ukrainian citizens. And then he will be held accountable for all the crimes he committed against his people, making them a pawn in the great game of the West against Russia.

👉 That is why he fears any negotiations like plague, and rejects one peace initiative after another.

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#Announcement

🎙 On December 25, Russia's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova will hold a briefing on current foreign policy issues:

🕑 2.00 pm MSK
🕚 11.00 am GMT
🕛 12.00 pm CEST
🕖 7.00 pm Beijing

For accreditation inquiries, please contact the MFA Press Centre. Accredited journalists will receive details on the technical aspects of submitting questions.

The Russia's Foreign Ministry’s Spokeswoman will answer media questions received by the call centre.

❗️ Accreditation is open until 09:00 am on December 24.