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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that despite two months of international sanctions and condemnations for its invasion of Ukraine, Russia still has a “different position” on what is happening in the war-torn country.
Guterres made the remarks in Moscow after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin later in the day before traveling to Ukraine on Thursday to speak with its leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“I had a very frank conversation with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and it is clear that there are two different positions on what is happening in Ukraine,” Guterres told Lavrov and reporters in Moscow.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (right) welcomes UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for talks in Moscow, Russia on Tuesday, April 26. (Maxim Shipenkov/Pool Photo via AP)
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“According to the Russian Federation, a special military operation with the announced goals is taking place here,” he continued. “In the view of the United Nations, in accordance with the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a violation of its territorial integrity and contrary to the Charter of the United Nations.”
Guterres said: “Today, about the Donbass [in Ukraine]a violent struggle is underway with enormous deaths and destruction.
“Many civilians are being killed and hundreds of thousands of people are in life-threatening conditions, trapped in the conflict,” he added.
Lavrov (left) meets Guterres (right) on Tuesday, April 26, in Moscow, Russia.
Guterres also proposed on Tuesday the formation of a “humanitarian contact group” that would allow for the safe evacuation of Ukrainians trapped in towns like Mariupol, where officials say up to 1,000 civilians are hiding at the Azovstal steel factory.
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“My proposal envisages coordinated work by the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Russian Federation to enable the safe evacuation of the civilians living both inside the Azovstal plant and in the city in any direction they choose to go and deliver the needed humanitarian assistance,” he said.
Ukraine wants the UN to be “the initiator and guarantor of the Azovstal humanitarian corridor for civilians,” Reuters quoted Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying on Monday.