Guterres to meet Putin
Guterres to meet Putin, Zelenskyy next week
UN Secretary-General António Guterres will travel to Russia and Ukraine next week to meet with the foreign ministers and presidents of these countries.
Nearly two months of intense and escalating hostilities in Ukraine continue to have horrific repercussions for civilians and caused a grave humanitarian crisis.
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Guterres will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow Tuesday, where he will also hold talks with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The UN secretary-general will then travel to Kyiv Thursday, where he will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
In both visits, he aims to talk about "what can be done to bring peace to Ukraine urgently" and help people get to safety, UN Spokesperson Eri Kaneko said at a briefing in New York.
To step up efforts to end the war in Ukraine, Guterres had asked to meet the leaders of Russia and Ukraine in separate letters handed to their countries' permanent missions to the UN.
Over 5 million people fled Ukraine to seek safety in other countries and another 7.1 million have been internally displaced across the country, according to the intergovernmental organisation.