Overshadowed by alleged rocket attacks in Kiev, UN Secretary-General António Guterres met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Ukrainian capital.
After his visit to Moscow, Guterres discussed with the head of government the formation of a refugee corridor for the port city of Mariupol, which had been badly damaged after weeks of fighting. “Mariupol is a crisis within a crisis, thousands of civilians need help to save lives,” Guterres told a news conference after the meeting in Kiev on Thursday. They need an escape route to escape the “apocalypse”.
During the visit, several explosions occurred near the center of the capital. “At night, the enemy bombed Kiev: two explosions in the Shevchenko district,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram channel. According to civil protection, a residential building was hit. According to preliminary information, six people were injured. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podoliak said that not long ago Guterres was sitting in the Kremlin and “today there are explosions just a kilometer away from him. Is that a greeting from Moscow?” Guterres told the BBC he was shocked.
Also critical of the UN Security Council
In the press conference with Zelensky, Guterres also criticized the UN Security Council for not doing everything in its power to prevent war. “This is a source of great disappointment, frustration and anger,” he said. But the UN team would do anything to help the people in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy was upbeat after the conversation. According to Ukrainian news agency Unian, he now believes that the siege of the Azovstal steel mills can be ended and that a “successful result” can be achieved in Mariupol. «We expect from the Russian Federation a humane attitude towards these people»
According to his own account, the UN chief received a commitment in principle from Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin on Tuesday for the United Nations to participate in the construction of an escape corridor. There are now intensive consultations on how the proposal can actually be implemented. According to Ukrainian sources, up to 1,000 civilians are trapped in the Azovstal steelworks, as well as soldiers and fighters from the nationalist Azov regiment.
Guterres deeply affected
Before meeting Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kiev, Guterres visited several devastated suburbs and expressed his deep concern. “I imagine my family in one of those houses that are now dilapidated and black. And I see my granddaughters running away in panic,” he said in the small town of Borodyanka.
In the town of Bucha, which has become infamous for alleged Russian atrocities, Guterres stressed that it was important to “carefully investigate” this horror and hold those responsible to account. Images of Ukrainian civilians killed in Bucha shocked the world earlier this month. More than 400 bystanders were found dead, some with their hands tied behind their backs.