Ukraine to UN: energy dollars fuel Russia’s aggression

He delivered the remarks on Tuesday at a meeting of the UN Security Council, an Ukrinform correspondent in New York reports.

“The main reason why Russia is still able to continue its war against Ukraine, producing weapons, missiles and drones that murder our children every day, is quite simple: Russia earns all the money to fund its war by exporting its energy resources: oil, gas and coal,” Melnyk said.

He recalled that in 2024, Russia received around $270 billion from energy exports, with three countries accounting for roughly 75% of these revenues.

“The purchases of Russian energy by just three biggest consumers exceeded by far the entirety of Russia’s annual defense spending,” the ambassador noted.

Melnyk stressed that Ukraine welcomes the measures taken by the United States against Russia’s largest energy companies.

“We call upon the European Union, the United States of America, and all other peace-loving countries to introduce massive secondary sanctions against all those countries who keep supporting Russia’s war-making machine,” he said.

He went on to compare Russia’s energy revenues to the mythical needle of Koschei the Deathless, a villain in Slavic folklore whose life force is hidden inside a tiny needle.

“Russia’s war engine has its own ‘needle’: the petrol dollars from energy exports. As long as that needle remains intact, the Kremlin believes itself immortal… But once we break it, once the flow of oil and gas money is curtailed, the illusion of Russia’s invincibility will vanish like a due in the sun,” Melnyk said.

He emphasized that reducing Russia’s energy revenues would directly weaken its ability to continue the war and bring the end of the aggression against Ukraine closer.

As reported, the UN Security Council convened on Tuesday to address the intensifying Russian strikes targeting civilians and infrastructure in Ukraine.