A meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss measures to end the raging war in Ukraine was “very useful,” according to a top U.N. official who met with the Kremlin earlier this week.
The two leaders walked away with an agreement “in principle” to evacuate Ukrainian civilians from a steel plant in Mariupol while also explicitly stating the Russian invasion is a violation of the U.N. charter, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. It’s unclear whether any immediate changes will be made by the Russian government in response to the meeting, but Guterres said it would help bring an end to the monthslong war.
“I think it was a very useful meeting,” Guterres told CNN. “First of all … it was possible to tell President Putin the same things I say in New York or I’ll be able to say here in Kyiv, which means that the Russian invasion is against the charter of the United Nations, is a violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and that this war must end as quickly as possible.”
CIVILIAN EVACUATION FROM MARIUPOL DISRUPTED BY RUSSIAN MILITARY
An evacuation of Ukrainian civilians out of Mariupol was disrupted when the Russian military instead took evacuees into “occupied territory” on Saturday, a Ukrainian leader said. The Russians had initially agreed to provide buses for the residents, but when they arrived, the military told them they had to disperse because “there will be shelling now.”
Top Ukrainian officials had disagreed with the idea of Guterres meeting with the Kremlin, telling NBC over the weekend it was “not a good idea” and expressing concern over what the outcomes could be.
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“We did not understand his intention to travel to Moscow and to talk to President Putin,” Igor Zhovkva, deputy head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, told the outlet. “Any peace talks are good if they end with the result. I really doubt if those peace talks organized by secretary-general of the U.N. would end up with any result.”
Guterres arrived in Kyiv on Thursday for another meeting with Zelensky to discuss efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Almost 2,800 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since the Russian invasion began, with another 3,152 injured, according to the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
