LONDON, June 23. /TASS/. The second fundraising conference for rebuilding Ukraine that ended in Washington on Thursday exposes the West’s hypocrisy and serves as a pretext for "a wholesale purchase" of Ukrainian assets, the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom said in a statement.

"A fundraising conference for the ‘recovery’ of Ukraine <…> graphically demonstrates the hypocrisy of the collective West. Unsurprisingly, the UK and its allies have not summoned the courage to admit that the catastrophic situation in Ukraine is a direct result of their own actions," the statement says. "It is NATO countries that in 2014 supported the anti-constitutional coup d’·tat in Kiev, spent years sabotaging the Minsk Agreements on the settlement of the conflict in the South-East of Ukraine, unleashed and continue to nourish the proxy war against Russia, lavishly sponsoring the Kiev regime with money, military advisors, intelligence, as well as ever more sophisticated armaments. They also forbid Kiev to put an end to the conflict through an agreement which was almost reached in spring 2022."

"Behind bombastic promises to rebuild Ukraine anew the West seeks to conceal its intention to continue using this country and its citizens as an instrument in its fight against Russia," the embassy added.

According to Russian diplomats, "the conference confirmed that declarations of supposed care about the well-being of Ukraine serve as cover for wholesale purchase of its assets, a major part of which has already come under the control of Western ‘benefactors.’"

"Against the backdrop of ongoing military hostilities pompous projects related to the development of Ukrainian digital and ‘green’ infrastructure smack of outright mystification and hoax. As for new loans promised to Kiev, they will clearly become yet another heavy burden for Ukrainians and will serve to aggravate the already enormous state debt of this country. Essentially, Ukraine is being pushed into a state of ‘eternal indebtedness,’" they said.

The document goes on to say that "it is quite indicative that London apparently seeks to pass the costs of ‘recovering’ Ukraine to others, in particular, to the European Union."

"The tactic is not new and obviously designed to further weaken the competitive positions of the EU, which continues to persistently act to the detriment of its own interests," the Russian diplomatic mission said.

"Unlike the UK and other Western countries Russia is engaged - patiently and without aggressive self-advertisement - in the reconstruction of infrastructure of territories which have been shelled for many years by Ukrainian nationalists. Urgent action is being taken to rebuild the cities and villages that have been badly damaged by hostilities. New districts of Mariupol and other cities have been constructed without delay. Hundreds of social buildings have sprung up in all new subjects of the Russian Federation. These efforts will be continued," the embassy added.