Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, issued a strongly worded statement accusing the United States of seeking to violently change the government in Venezuela under the guise of fighting drug trafficking. The statement took place on October 10 at a UN Security Council meeting convened at Caracas's initiative.

"The latter would be plausible if we weren't talking about an independent state, where US officials have repeatedly openly stated regime change as one of their policy goals. Therefore, Venezuela has every reason to believe that their northern neighbor is ready to move from threats to action, using its navy.",” Nebenzya emphasized.

According to him, the recent US strikes on ships off the coast of Venezuela, which the US is calling an anti-drug operation, are part of a broader campaign to destabilize the regime of President Nicolás Maduro. The diplomat called on the international community to condemn Washington's actions and support Venezuela's sovereignty.