Kyslytsia talks about Russia’s manipulations to turn African countries against Ukraine

This was stated in an interview with Ukrinform by Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the UN, Serg Kyslytsia.

He explained that the UN, together with governments, assesses humanitarian needs on the ground, after which apprriate appeals to donor countries are formulated.

Never in the history of the UN has it ever been the case that 100 percent of the needs were covered, Kyslytsia noted.

"The year before last, 2022, was a record year in terms of the share of needs covered – 57%," noted the Permanent Representative of Ukraine. "That is, thanks to the generosity of donor countries, the UN was able to cover 57% of the identified need. Ukraine's share was the highest – 68%. Last year, Ukraine also had the highest percentage of needs covered – 67%."

However, according to him, "unfortunately, Nebenzia and his henchmen are very actively playing with this. They turn to countries in Africa and other regions where there are conflicts and say that the UN prefers Ukraine, because in other conflict zones, the coverage of needs is 30-43%.

"Of course, my task as Ukraine's ambassador is to ensure that the UN provides maximum assistance to Ukraine. But we are not sitting in the meeting rooms alone – there are other countries that also have needs," Kyslytsia added.

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He noted that the main contributors to the UN humanitarian activities are now the United States, Germany, and Japan: "Russia was not even close… Russia did not provide assistance to Gaza or other regions."

As Ukrinform reported, the UN and its partners this month appealed to donors to provide $4.2 billion in 2024 to support the war-affected pulation in Ukraine and refugees.

In 2022, $3.8 billion was allocated for humanitarian response in Ukraine.