U.N. chief to visit Moscow on Tuesday, will meet Putin

By Daphne Psaledakis

– United Nations Secretary-Basic Antonio Guterres will go to Moscow on Tuesday, and can meet with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin following its February invasion of Ukraine, a spokesperson for the U.N. chief mentioned.

Guterres can even have a working assembly and lunch with Russian Overseas Minister Sergei Lavrov, Eri Kaneko, Guterres’ affiliate spokesperson, instructed a press briefing in New York on Friday.

“He hopes to speak about what will be executed to deliver peace to Ukraine urgently,” Kaneko mentioned.

The secretary-general’s workplace can be working with Ukraine’s authorities on scheduling and preparations for a go to to Russia’s southern neighbor, the spokesperson mentioned.

Guterres on Tuesday requested Putin to obtain him in Moscow and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to obtain him in Kyiv, in separate letters handed to their nations’ everlasting missions to the United Nations.

Guterres on Tuesday additionally referred to as for a four-day Orthodox Easter humanitarian pause in preventing in Ukraine starting on Thursday to permit for the secure passage of civilians from areas of battle and the supply of humanitarian assist to hard-hit areas.

“The secretary-general will not be a lot dissatisfied that his personal private name was not heeded, however extra that there was no truce, that civilians can't depart besieged areas and that the help that the U.N. and our companions are able to ship to those besieged areas can't go in,” Kaneko mentioned on Friday.

Guterres will additional these discussions throughout his go to to Moscow, the spokesperson added.

Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the largest assault on a European nation since 1945, has killed or wounded hundreds. Greater than 12 million individuals want humanitarian help within the nation in the present day, Guterres has mentioned.

Since beginning what it calls a particular operation to demilitarize Ukraine, Russia has bombed cities to rubble and lots of of civilian our bodies have been present in cities after its forces withdrew. It denies concentrating on civilians and says, with out proof, that indicators of atrocities had been staged.

Western nations and Ukraine accuse Putin of unprovoked aggression.