UN Secretary-General António Guterres is set to meet with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine separately next week to make an urgent plea for peace, the world body explained.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Mr Guterres will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday 27 April in Moscow.
The UN spokesperson announced in another statement that Mr Guterres will also travel to Ukraine next week. He will have a working meeting with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and will be received by President Volodymyr Zelensky on 28 April.
In both visits, Mr Guterres aims to discuss “steps that can be taken right now” to stop the fighting and help people get to safety, UN spokesperson Eri Kaneko said.
“He hopes to talk about what can be done to bring peace to Ukraine urgently,” she added.
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The UN Secretary-General has urged Russia to stop its attack since it began two months ago, in what he called “the saddest moment” of his five years in the role. He appealed last week for a four-day “humanitarian pause” in fighting leading up to Sunday’s Orthodox Easter holiday, to no avail as Russian bombardment has continued.
Mr Guterres will also meet with UN staff on the ground to discuss the scaling up of humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine.
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has killed or wounded thousands of people, and allegations of war crimes have been levelled at Putin. More than 12 million people need humanitarian assistance in the country, Mr Guterres has said.
