Newsman: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres held a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday in an attempt to find a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine.
He told Mr Lavrov the UN is “extremely interested in finding ways in order to create the conditions for effective dialogue, create the conditions for a ceasefire as soon as possible, and create the conditions for a peaceful solution”. Mr Guterres has accused the Russian government of violating the UN Charter by sending troops into Ukraine — and has repeatedly demanded a ceasefire.
Mr Guterres will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for further talks later on Tuesday and He will travel to Kyiv after his talks in Moscow.
Mr Guterres laid out his aims for the talks to Mr Lavrov in an address before the meeting started.
Mr Lavrov said the situation in Ukraine has “become a catalyst for a great number of problems”, which had accumulated over the past decades in the European and Atlantic regions.
Speaking at a joint press conference after the talks, Mr Lavrov reiterated his government’s accusations that the Kyiv administration was trying to ban the Russian culture and language, and had been promoting Nazi ideology through laws. The claims have been dismissed by analysts.
Mr Lavrov said it was too early to talk about who would mediate any negotiations. He said Russia was committed to a diplomatic solution via talks on Ukraine, but said it was “depressing” the way the Kyiv delegation and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were behaving.
Mr Lavrov said Moscow was ready to cooperate with the UN to help civilians in Ukraine.
“Our goals are primarily to protect the civilian population and here we are ready to cooperate with our colleagues from the UN to alleviate the plight of the civilian population,” Mr Lavrov said.
Mr Guterres told reporters at the press conference that their discussion on the Ukraine crisis had been “very frank”.
He said he was concerned about multiple reports about humans rights violations and possible war crimes being committed in Ukraine, and said the battle for the Donbas had brought “tremendous death and destruction” to eastern Ukraine.
He said effective humanitarian corridors were urgently needed to evacuate civilians from under-fire areas, and called for a ceasefire. Mr Guterres said the UN stands ready to evacuate civilians trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol.
“The sooner peace is established the better for the sake of Ukraine, Russia and for the world,” he said.
The UN chief acknowledged differences in opinions in Kyiv and Moscow, but pointed out that there are Russian tanks in Ukraine but no Ukrainian tanks in Russia. He also said it was clear that Russia had “many grievances” with the UN.
“There is one thing that is true and obvious and that no argument can change: we have not Ukrainian troops in the territory of the Russian Federation but we have Russian troops in the territory of the Ukrainian Federation.”
Mr Lavrov signalled his agreement, stating: “That is true, I confirm that.”
Before his meeting with Mr Guterres in Moscow, Mr Lavrov told his guest that he wanted to speak about the need for multilateralism and the work of the UN.
Mr Lavrov accused the West of neglecting the principles of multilateralism.
“These principles of true multilateralism have, for a number of years, been flouted by the West that has undertook the tactics of instilling into the world arena the unilateral world order for it to stay for good,” he said through a translator.
Mr Guterres responded by describing himself as a “very committed multilateralist based on the values of the UN Charter and international law.”
He said despite the UN and Moscow having different interpretations of the war in Ukraine, both sides could work together to minimise the suffering of the people in the former Soviet nation.
“I know that we have … different interpretations about what’s happening in Ukraine,” he said during his first visit to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.
“That does not limit the possibility to have a very serious dialogue on how best we can work to minimise the suffering of people.”
The UN chief said he was also eager to find ways to reduce the impact of the conflict on other parts of the world. He said that many countries around the globe were facing “dramatic impacts of the war”, and said efforts were needed to shield them from knock-on effects in areas such as food security, energy and finance.
He stressed his commitment “to do everything possible to end the war as soon as possible and to do everything possible to minimise the suffering of the people and to address the impacts in the vulnerable populations in other parts of the world”.
