UNITED NATIONS, May 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations and several countries called for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, with little mention of reviving the two countries’ apparently stalled peace talks.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a violation of its territorial integrity and of the Charter of the United Nations,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at a Security Council meeting organized by the United States.
“It must end for the sake of the people of Ukraine, Russia, and the entire world,” he added.
Guterres recently visited Moscow and Kyiv to advocate for the evacuation of civilians from the battered port city of Mariupol, from where several hundred people have been able to escape since the weekend.
The majority of the Security Council’s members, including China, the United States, Ireland, France and Mexico called for an end to the months-old conflict.
The Chinese ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun underscored that only diplomacy would end the fighting, criticizing arms shipments to Ukraine.
His Kenyan counterpart Martin Kimani called for Guterres’ mediation.
“Every opportunity must be used to achieve peace,” said Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya.
According to diplomats, non-permanent members of the Security Council Norway and Mexico submitted a text expressing “strong support to the efforts of the Secretary-General and the offer of his good offices in the search for a peaceful solution.”
An adoption of the statement, which would be the first show of unity in the council since Russia’s Feb 24 invasion, remains uncertain.
“There is time,” Deputy Russian Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy commented when asked if Moscow might approve it.
Meanwhile in ZAPORIZHZHIA (Ukraine), a new UN convoy was expected in Mariupol Friday to evacuate civilians from the “bleak hell” of a besieged steel plant that has become the last pocket of resistance against invading Russian forces in the southern port city.
The Russian military had announced a three-day ceasefire at the site starting Thursday but a Ukrainian commander said there was still heavy fighting at the sprawling Azovstal complex, where hundreds of soldiers and civilians have been holed up for weeks under heavy bombardment.
Ten weeks into a war that has killed thousands, destroyed cities and uprooted more than 13 million people, Russia has focused its efforts on Ukraine’s east and south, and taking full control of the now-flattened Mariupol would be a major victory for Moscow.
“A convoy is proceeding to get to Azovstal by tomorrow morning hopefully to receive those civilians remaining in that bleak hell,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths told a Ukraine donor conference in Warsaw on Thursday.
The mayor of Mariupol estimates around 200 civilians remain sheltering in dismal conditions in the plant’s Soviet-era underground tunnels.
“We still have to evacuate civilians from there, women and children. Just imagine… more than two months of constant bombing and constant death,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Thursday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said “that a safe passage operation is ongoing” in coordination with the UN. The two organisations have already worked together to evacuate some 100 civilians from the complex. — NNN-AGENCIES
