A senior Russian Foreign Ministry official warned today, Sunday, that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is approaching a situation threatening direct military confrontation with Russia, noting that Western military aid to Ukraine has exceeded 40 billion dollars.
Russian media quoted Konstantin Vorontsov, Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry's Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department, as saying that NATO countries "prefer to remain silent about their involvement in the Ukrainian crisis, but you cannot hide the truth."
He added - speaking at the United Nations in the framework of the 77th session of the General Assembly - that these countries "are racing to provide support to the Kyiv regime and continue to supply it with weapons, ammunition, intelligence information, training of its soldiers and management of combat operations."
Vorontsov believed that these countries are thus approaching "the level of danger that portends a direct military confrontation with Russia", because that makes them complicit in the aggression against Russia, as he put it.
The Russian official stated that according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Western military aid to Ukraine totaled $42.3 billion, more than half of which came from the United States.
He accused the United States of reaping the "largest share of the gains from the continuing bloodshed," saying it was forcing European countries to buy weapons and military equipment from them before sending them to Ukraine.
"It should be remembered that the US lending to Ukraine consists of 90% of unsustainable loans, and at the same time this allows Washington to operate its military-industrial complex, reduce inflation and create new jobs," he added.
Vorontsov stated that a large part of these weapons are traded on the black market, whose monthly sales exceed one billion dollars, according to him.