UN Secretary-General António Guterres will travel to Russia and Ukraine next week. He will visit Moscow, Russian Federation, on April 26th and have a working meeting and lunch with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Secretary-General will then be received by President Vladimir Putin.
Later on Friday, the UN spokesperson announced in another statement that Mr. Guterres will also travel to Ukraine next week.
He will have a working meeting with Foreign Minister Minister Dmytro Kuleba and will be received by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 28 April.
“We need urgent steps to save lives, end the human suffering and bring about peace in Ukraine,” the Secretary-General said on Twitter.
The UN Chief will meet as well with UN staff on the ground to discuss the scaling up of humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine.
Earlier this week UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote separate letters to the leaders of Russia and Ukraine to request meetings with them in their respective capitals.
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Mr. Guterres has asked President Vladimir Putin to receive him in Moscow and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to receive him in Kyiv.
“The Secretary-General said, at this time of great peril and consequence, he would like to discuss urgent steps to bring about peace in Ukraine and the future of multilateralism based on the Charter of the United Nations and international law,” said Mr. Dujarric.
The announcement came after the UN chief called for a humanitarian pause in Ukraine ahead of Orthodox Christian Easter this weekend.
(Updated)