Updated 24 minutes ago
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, during a visit to Moscow, that he looks forward to finding ways to stop the fighting in Ukraine as quickly as possible.
“We are very interested in finding ways to create conditions for effective dialogue, create conditions for a ceasefire as quickly as possible, and create conditions for a peaceful solution,” Guterres said at the start of his talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday.
This is Guterres’ first visit to Moscow since Russia sent troops to Ukraine on February 24. He is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin after meeting Lavrov.
“I know we have … different interpretations of what is happening in Ukraine. But that does not limit the possibility of having a very serious dialogue about how we can best work to reduce people’s suffering,” Guterres added.
Guterres has accused Russia of violating the UN Charter by sending troops to Ukraine and has repeatedly called for a ceasefire there.
picture released, EPA
Guterres urged Lavrov to find a way to end the war.
Russian Foreign Minister Guterres said that a large number of problems in Ukraine were the cause of the fighting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is due to meet Guterres on Thursday, has expressed his anger that the UN Secretary-General visited Moscow first.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, but there is little expectation about the meeting, following several failed diplomatic efforts.
Talks are expected to focus on the besieged city of Mariupol, where Russian forces have declared control of the city but are still trying to capture the Azovstal steel complex.
Ukraine asked Guterres to ensure a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of civilians sheltering inside the plant.
The latest field developments
picture released, Archyde.com
The Russian bombing is still going on for some facilities in Ukraine.
On the ground, the British Ministry of Defense said that Russian forces are trying to cordon off highly fortified Ukrainian sites in the east of the country, after reports of the fall of the city of Kremena.
But there is no independent confirmation of this yet.
Ukraine’s Armed Forces General Staff says it has repelled six Russian attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk in the past 24 hours – as Moscow aims to take full control of the Donbass region and create a land corridor to Crimea, which it annexed to Russia in 2014.
The British Ministry of Defense stated that Ukrainian forces were also preparing for another Russian attack from the south in Zaporizhia.
Local authorities say Russia has launched several air strikes in the area.
Officials in the southern city of Mykolaiv say that Russian forces have used missile launchers to target the city’s infrastructure.
NATO is at war with Russia
On the political front, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the delivery of Western weapons to Ukraine means that NATO is “fundamentally engaged in a war with Russia.”
“These weapons will be a legitimate target of the Russian army acting in the context of the special operation,” he said in an interview broadcast on Monday.
Lavrov also told state television that “NATO is, in essence, going to war with Russia through a proxy, and it is arming that proxy. War means war.”
Lavrov also saw the possibility that the conflict would escalate to include the use of nuclear weapons, although he used a tone of hope about the prospects for a peace agreement.
Speaking to Russia’s Channel One, he said that Moscow wants to avoid the “artificial” increased risks of such a conflict.
“This is our main position on which we build everything. The stakes are now high,” Lavrov said.
“I don’t want to artificially increase these risks. A lot of people want to. The risk is real and we should not underestimate it.”
“Good Actor”
picture released, EPA
Lavrov described Zelensky as a good actor.
Lavrov also accused the Ukrainian president of “pretending” to negotiate, describing him as a “good actor”.
“If you watch what he says carefully and read carefully, you will find thousands of contradictions,” the top Russian diplomat said.
The Russian foreign minister said last week that Moscow was committed to avoiding a nuclear war.
On Twitter, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Monday that Lavrov’s recent comments were an indication that Russia had lost its “last hope of intimidating the world from supporting Ukraine.”
“Talking about a ‘real’ danger of World War III. It only means that Moscow feels defeated in Ukraine,” he added.
Days after the invasion began on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his nuclear forces to be put on alert.
The United States and its NATO allies have said they do not want direct military intervention in Ukraine, in order to avoid the risks of a third world war.