(CU)_The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, visited Ukraine on Thursday (28 April), just a couple of days after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The UN chief’s visit to the transcontinental nation however, did not deter the Kremlin from continuing its attacks against neighbouring Ukraine.
During Guterres’ visit to the war-torn nation, a Russian missile attack hit close to him, leaving the United Nations astonished. According to a spokesperson for the intergovernmental organisation, the Secretary-General and his team were “shocked” by the proximity of Moscow’s attacks, but confirmed that they were all safe. “It is a war zone but it is shocking that it happened close to us,” Saviano Abreu, spokesperson for the UN’s humanitarian office, said.
The attacks near the UN’s secretary-general, which were seen as the boldest attack on Kyiv since Russian forces retreated, were denounced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “Today, immediately after the end of our talks in Kyiv, Russian missiles flew into the city. Five rockets. And this says a lot … about the Russian leadership’s efforts to humiliate the UN and everything that the organisation represents,” he said, adding that it required “a correspondingly powerful reaction”.
According to Guterres, during his time in Moscow, President Putin agreed “in principle” to the involvement of the UN and the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) in evacuating the Azovstal steel plant, where fighters and civilians are being holed up. “As we speak, there are intense discussions to move forward on this proposal to make it a reality,” the UN chief said. “I can only tell you we are doing everything we can to make it happen. I’m not going to enter into any comment that could undermine that possibility.”
