MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed as "nonsense and pure lies" the West’s "mantra" about wanting to help the Global South and the Global East.

"Certainly, the Western mantra that they would like to be part of the international community or that they would like the Global South and the Global East to develop actively or be part of all these schemes that can save humankind are nonsense and pure lies," Russia’s top diplomat said in an interview with The Great Game TV show on Channel One. He added that the amount of funding promised to the two regions was a mere fraction of what has actually been sent to Ukraine.

"There is a tenfold difference between what the West has promised, say, to African countries. <…> and what the West has pledged to the developing world to cover the costs of overcoming climate change," Lavrov specified, as he recounted that, in 2015, 100 bln euros per year over the next decade was promised in funding.

According to Lavrov, the West is running out of money to support Ukraine. "Everybody’s saying that openly, as far as I understand, there is no secret here," he concluded.