Humanitarian ceasefires between Ukrainian and Russian forces could be possible in a few weeks, says Martin Griffiths.
Humanitarian ceasefires between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Ukraine are not in sight but could be in a few weeks, the UN aid chief said.
Martin Griffiths briefed reporters at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday about his attempts to arrange local ceasefires in Ukraine so that desperate civilians can be evacuated from contested areas and much-needed aid can be delivered.
Moscow’s invasion, the largest attack on a European state since 1945, has killed and wounded thousands. More than seven million people in Ukraine are estimated to be internally displaced and in urgent need of assistance, according to the International Rescue Committee.
Griffiths met with senior officials in Moscow and Kyiv this month to discuss the United Nations’ “aspirations” for humanitarian ceasefires and ways to improve a system for notifying sides of evacuations and humanitarian supplies movements.
“Obviously we have not yet reached a humanitarian ceasefire on the Russian side,” he said. “I went into many details and they continued to promise to get back to me with the details of those proposals.”
“Right now, if I could speak for the Russian authorities, they don’t put local ceasefires high on their agenda,” he said. “A ceasefire is currently not in sight. They can be in a couple of weeks. They can be a bit longer.”
Griffiths said he will travel to Turkey this week to discuss the prospects for humanitarian talks between Ukraine and Russia with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials.
“Turkey could present itself to both sides as a really valuable and useful host for these talks,” he said.
UN aid officials plan to send a humanitarian convoy in the next few days to the eastern region of Donetsk, where Russian-backed separatists have declared a republic, and from there aid supplies will go to Luhansk, another separatist region, he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities have urged people in the eastern Donbass region to move west to avoid a full-scale Russian offensive to capture the composite Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
They also recently accused Russian forces of attacking evacuation infrastructure, including buses and a train station in Kramatorsk, where more than 50 people were reportedly killed in Russian strikes.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, in a statement on social media, called on Russian forces to allow evacuations from the besieged and devastated port city of Mariupol, which Moscow forces have allegedly taken control of.
“Once again we demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of civilians, especially women and children, from Mariupol,” she wrote.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week that if Russian troops kill Kiev’s troops who remain to defend the city, it would end a fledgling negotiation process that would end nearly two months of fighting.