UN – After Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to end his war in Ukraine by sending an envoy, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres traveled to a face-to-face meeting with Putin on Monday. The UN chief will arrive in Moscow on Tuesday after first visiting Ankara in Turkey, where the government has spearheaded pressure for a ceasefire.
Guterres will then travel from Moscow to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who blasted Guterres’ decision to visit Moscow first as Russia’s bombing of Ukrainian cities continues to take a devastating toll on civilians.
“It’s just wrong to go to Russia first and then to Ukraine,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv on Saturday. “There is no justice and no logic in that order.”
Ukrainians celebrate Orthodox Easter in the midst of war 03:45
“The war is in Ukraine, there are no corpses on the streets of Moscow. It would be logical to go to Ukraine first to see the people there, the consequences of the occupation,” he said.
The deputy head of Zelenskyi’s office, Igor Zhovkva, told Meet the Press on Sunday that the secretary-general was “not really” authorized to speak on behalf of the Ukrainian government.
The merits of Guterres’ itinerary will likely be judged by Putin’s response to the Secretary-General’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the press at the UN headquarters in New York on April 19, 2022. XieE/Xinhua/Getty
“The Secretary-General said that he would like to discuss urgent steps to bring about peace in Ukraine at this time of great danger and consequences,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York before the trip.
On his way to Moscow, Guterres will first visit Turkey and meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He travels to Kyiv on Thursday to meet Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
The UN chief will be in Kyiv three days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Kyiv, who pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in additional military aid.
Zelenskyy urges more guns before visit of senior US officials 03:04
Blinken said Monday that he had spoken to Guterres and that he understood the UN chief would send a “very strong message” to Putin about the need to end the war and institute an immediate ceasefire and open corridors to provide aid to Letting civilians in and out of besieged cities.
Ahead of Guterres’ visit to Ankara, the Ukrainian president said he had “an important one phone call with Erdogan, in which he stressed the need for an immediate evacuation of the civilian population from Mariupol.”
Turkish media said on Sunday Erdogan had reiterated his country’s support for negotiations to end the war and said Turkey would welcome a “guarantee” position in any peace deal.
More Pamela Falk