"The fact of the matter is that this organisation's financial activity is also being undermined and thus this organisation is losing the capacity to assist developing countries that are hardest-hit by the [COVID-19] pandemic because they have had not particularly developed or unstable health care systems and now they are being undermined even more", Ustinov said at the Soobschestvo (Community) forum in Moscow.
In early July, US President Donald Trump notified the United Nations about the US' withdrawal from the global health body. During the coronavirus pandemic, Trump emerged as a vociferous critic of the organisation, accusing it of close ties with China, as well as a failure to implement necessary reforms.
The decision was widely panned both in the US and abroad as detrimental to international cooperation, especially at the time of a global health crisis.