UN official heads to Moscow seeking ‘humanitarian ceasefire’

FILE PHOTO: United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres (AFP-Yonhap)

United Nations, United States — A top United Nations official will visit Moscow this weekend to try to secure a “humanitarian ceasefire” in Ukraine, UN chief Antonio Guterres said Friday.

Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, will fly to Moscow on Sunday and then on to Kyiv.

Guterres said that the visit showed “that we don’t give up on the perspective of stopping the fighting, in Yemen, in Ukraine, everywhere in the world.”

Both Russia and Ukraine had agreed to meet Griffiths, he said.

Russia has until now refused any visit by a senior UN official to discuss its war in Ukraine, including in the weeks before the February 24 invasion when Guterres sought to send his deputy for political affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo.

Since the outbreak of the war, the UN chief has failed to reach Russian President Vladimir Putin who, according to diplomats, was angered by Guterres’ charge that Russia had violated the UN Charter by invading its neighbor.

Moscow rejects the term “war” and insists it is carrying out a “special military operation” inside Ukraine.

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