UN Chief to Meet With Russian, Ukrainian Presidents

By Staff, Agencies

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Moscow next week to meet with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin before heading to Kiev for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Guterres is set to meet with Putin on Tuesday as well as have a working meeting and lunch with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. 

"He hopes to talk about what can be done to bring peace to Ukraine urgently," said Guterres’ associate spokesperson Eri Kaneko.

The UN leader will then meet with Zelensky on Thursday before hosting Kiev’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and staff at UN agencies to discuss the scaling up of humanitarian aid efforts.

Leaders of both nations were asked to meet with Guterres in separate letters handed to their countries’ permanent UN missions.

Guterres on Tuesday called for a four-day Easter humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine to allow for the safe passage of civilians from areas of conflict and the delivery of aid to hard-hit areas.

"The secretary-general is not so much disappointed that his own personal call was not heeded, but more that there has been no truce, that civilians cannot leave besieged areas, and that the aid… to these besieged areas cannot go in," Kaneko said.