Kremlin claims Europe have ‘thrown money down the drain’ that was allocated for Ukraine

The Kremlin said Tuesday that funds European countries allocated for Kyiv in its war with Russia, which nears its second year, have been "thrown down the drain."

"At one time, President (Joe) Biden called this an investment in the American understanding. If we stick to the point of view that this is an investment, then it has failed. Europeans understand this very well, that they have thrown money down the drain," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Expressing that all European countries are talking about an "ephemeral danger" caused by Russia, Peskov said everything in this regard is understandable because they spent a lot of money on Ukraine.

Peskov said the West may find it "convenient to put Ukraine to the slaughter as a whole" and to "sacrifice it to their own interests," but Ukraine is also "too big a country for Europe to just be put to the slaughter."

He argued that Europeans are beginning to understand the harmfulness of treating Russia as an "enemy."

Peskov also commented on the decree signed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "on the territories of the Russian Federation historically inhabited by Ukrainians," defining it as "absurd."

"He (Zelenskyy) needs something to camouflage his positions. He camouflages this with such absurd decrees. It is unlikely that this will somehow help the Kyiv regime; difficulties will only increase," said Peskov, adding that Ukraine's president is in a "very difficult situation."

In the decree Monday by the Ukrainian presidency, Zelenskyy asked his Cabinet to "develop and submit an action plan for preserving the national identity of Ukrainians in Russia, including on the lands historically inhabited by them, to the National Security and Defense Council."

He included those who live on territories within the borders of Russia's Krasnodar, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk and Rostov regions, and claimed that Ukrainians have been historically living in those areas.