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Russia’s UN envoy urges to lift sanctions that obstruct anti-coronavirus effort

Developing countries face enormous challenges and should be assisted first and formost, Vasily Nebenzya said

UNITED NATIONS, April 10. /TASS/. Unilateral and multilateral sanctions, imposed without UN approval, should be lifted amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s UN envoy, Vasily Nebenzya, told the UN Security Council session on COVID-19.

"Developing countries face enormous challenges and should be assisted first and formost. UN is the best platform to coordinate such assistance. In this context we call on everybody to lift all non-UN multilateral or unilateral coercive measures and sanctions against developing countries," reads the transcript of Nebenzya’s speech posted on the website of the Russian permanent mission to the UN.

"We can’t help with one hand and harm with another," the Russian envoy said.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 1,500,000 people have been infected worldwide and almost 90,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far over 331,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, a total of 10,131 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 698 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 76 fatalities nationwide.