A meeting with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is also planned in Kiev – followed by a visit to an as yet undisclosed location outside the capital. According to the United Nations, Guterres’ arrived in Kyiv by train on Tuesday evening.
He had previously met Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. According to the UN, Putin had described a role for the United Nations in the evacuation of Mariupol as a possibility. The President “in principle” agreed to the participation of the UN and the Red Cross, it said. Guterres has repeatedly criticized the Russian invasion of Ukraine and called for a ceasefire.
Recently, the pressure on the UN Secretary-General to take a more active role in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine had increased. Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24.