Overshadowed by 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 said on Thursday after the meeting in Kiev. They need an escape route to escape the “apocalypse”.
multiple explosions
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 the first information from the rescue services, ten people were injured or died. More details were not given. The Russian military is said to have fired five rockets at Kiev.
The Russian military confirmed the attacks on Kiev. Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in Moscow that high-precision, long-range missiles hit the factory buildings of Ukrainian missile manufacturer “Artem”.
This week, Russian military leaders threatened to attack Ukraine’s capital despite the presence of foreign politicians.
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 later told the British broadcaster BBC: “I was shocked to hear that two rockets exploded in the town where I am staying.”
Another presidential adviser criticized the rocket attacks as “the dumbest variant ever”. “How should the UN chief or the UN react to this?” said Olexy Arestovych. Russia shot Guterres in the back with this attack, Arestovych said, according to the UN agency. “For a cruise missile, the distance between the point of impact and Guterres’ location is about the same as two millimeters for a pistol. So the shot went past his temple.” Despite this, Russia will certainly continue to be a member of the UN Security Council.
Guterres is critical
At the press conference with Zelenskyy, 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 a humane attitude towards these people from the Russian Federation.”
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.
Russia does not give in
Meanwhile, Russia has rejected calls for talks on a corridor for all steel mill prisoners. Putin said this very clearly: “Civilians can go in any direction, the military must come out and lay down their weapons,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state news agency TASS. There is no subject for negotiations.
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 dead spectators were found.
When asked by the BBC if he believed that the conflict in Ukraine could lead to a third world war, Guterres said: “I seriously believe that a nuclear war is unthinkable. … And we must do everything possible to make it impossible.”