UN set to focus on Ukraine

UNITED NATIONS: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a global food crisis aggravated by the war will be the focus of world leaders when they convene at the United Nations in New York this week, a gathering that is unlikely to yield any progress towards ending the conflict.

‘‘It would be naive to think that we are close to the possibility of a peace deal,’’ UN Secretarygeneral Antonio Guterres said ahead of the highlevel meeting of the 193member UN General Assembly, which starts on Wednesday.

‘‘The chances of a peace deal are minimal, at the present moment.’’

Geopolitical divides, hardened by the sevenmonthold war, are likely to be on full display as the United States and Western allies compete with Russia for diplomatic influence.

US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda ThomasGreenfield, said other countries had expressed the concern that . . . ‘‘as we focus on Ukraine, we are not paying attention to what is happening in other crises around the world’’.

‘‘That is not the case,’’ she told reporters, adding Ukraine would not be the only thing that the assembly was dealing with.’’

Guterres said the geopolitical rifts were ‘‘the widest they have been since at least the Cold War.’’

He warned they were ‘‘paralysing the global response to the dramatic challenges we face,’’ citing war, climate, poverty, hunger, and inequality.

Russia and Ukraine are major grain and fertiliser exporters and the UN has blamed the war for worsening the food crisis already fuelled by climate change and the Covid19 pandemic.

The US is due to cohost a food security summit with the European Union and the African Union on the sidelines of the UN gathering, along with a Covid19 global action plan ministerial meeting. — Reuters