UN’s Guterres pursues peace in flying visits
Secretary-general holds talks with leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Turkey
As United Nations SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres urged the end of hostilities in a series of talks with leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Turkey, hopes of peace grew amid intermittent battles in Ukraine and increasing energy pressure on European countries.
“The sooner this war ends, the better — for the sake of Ukraine, Russia, and the world,” the UN chief said in a social media message after his arrival in Kiev. He talked with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on April 26 and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on April 28.
In their first meeting since the conflict began on Feb 24, the UN chief said he and Putin had agreed on arranging evacuations from a besieged steel plant in the battered Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the Russian leader and the UN chief discussed “proposals for humanitarian assistance and evacuation of civilians from conflict zones, namely in relation to the situation in Mariupol”.
They also agreed in principle, he said, that the UN and the International
Committee of the Red Cross should be involved in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel complex. Fighting and bombings continued in eastern Ukraine as Russia’s special military operation entered its third month.
During a stopover in Turkey before Moscow, Guterres met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the Ukraine issue.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Guterres, said earlier: “Ultimately, the end goal is to have a halt to fighting and to have ways to improve the situation of the people in Ukraine, lessen the threat that they’re under, and provide humanitarian aid.”
Yet Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak dismissed reports on April 27 of an upcoming meeting soon between Zelensky and Putin, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.
Zelensky did talk with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on April 24 in the first high-level visit by US officials, and was promised $713 million more from Washington in military aid for Ukraine and 15 other European countries, the Associated Press reported.
The West’s provision of military equipment to Ukraine as part of that support is something that carries
“considerable” risk, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian state media. Lavrov also discussed solutions to the current conflict with Guterres in Moscow.
Russia has claimed Western nations’ support of Ukraine in the conflict amounts to US-led NATO fighting a “proxy war” against it, with intensive training of Ukrainian fighters, constant flow of intelligence to Kiev and escalated armament of Ukrainians with advanced missiles and other weaponry.
Moscow’s ambassador to Washington also warned the US against sending more arms to Ukraine.
“We stressed the unacceptability of this situation when the United States of America pours weapons into Ukraine, and we demanded an end to this practice,” Anatoly Antonov said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel.
“In effect, the embassy is under a blockade by US government agencies,” he said on April 25, adding the Russian embassy had been receiving threatening phone calls and letters and, at one point, staff had been prevented from exiting the premises in Washington.
The Russian gas supplier Gazprom announced on April 27 that it was fully stopping its gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria, due to their “failure to pay in rubles” as Russia had decreed. Both are member states of the European Union. European gas prices shot up as much as 24 percent after the decision.
The EU is ready to face the suspension of Russian gas deliveries to its member states, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen later that day.
In a statement reacting to Gazprom’s announcement, von der Leyen called the move “another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail” in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
However, a Russian presidential adviser rejected the “blackmail” accusation, arguing that Russia was forced to resort to payment in rubles after the West “stole” Russian foreign exchange reserves in their countries.
“The sooner this war ends, the better – for the sake of Ukraine, Russia, and the world.”
ANTONIO GUTERRES United Nations Secretary-General