UNITED NATIONS, February 8. /TASS/. Russia’s UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya on Wednesday said US arms makers had turned Ukraine into a testing ground as Russians and Ukrainians get killed.
"The problem is that the levers that can influence the search for a peaceful solution to the conflict over Ukraine have ended up in the hands of Western arms companies and corporations. And they, as you understand perfectly well, are the last ones to be interested in peace," he said at a UN Security meeting that was convened by Russia. "The invitation cards that the Embassy of Ukraine to the US issued for the reception in December 2022 on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the founding of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, featured the logos of four US military-industrial complex companies as sponsors of the reception: Northtrop Grumann, Raytheon, Pratt & Whitney and Lockheed Martin. What is it for which the state of Ukraine is so grateful to these private companies that sell weapons? One sells artillery ammunition, another Stinger MANPADS, and the third the infamous HIMARS. Thanks to the nonstop shipments and new orders, the shares of these corporations jumped by more than 20% in the last three months of 2022 alone."
According to the diplomat, "American dealers now have a genuine testing ground for weapons, where at the cost of the lives of Russians and Ukrainians, new types of weapons are tested, modified and improved."
"How can gunsmiths give up such opportunities and such profits?" he added.
The official stated that the billions of dollars that the US earmarks for Ukraine "don’t even leave the US, but are sent directly to defense contractors."
"Things are about the same for other major arms suppliers. That means Western countries have found a pretext for a significant increase in their defense budgets and revenues of their own defense companies," Nebenzya said. "As a result, Ukraine receives, as a rule, obsolete weapons, which are mowed down by the Russian army, and the armies of NATO countries get modernized, and Western defense enterprises receive excess profits, lulling taxpayers to sleep with the need to help Ukraine. And Poland and the Czech Republic are becoming military repair centers for it and, according to the Wall Street Journal, also receive huge revenues from this.".