UNITED NATIONS, May 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed a Security Council statement in which the council “spoke with one voice for peace in Ukraine.”
“Today, for the first time, the Security Council spoke with one voice for peace in Ukraine. As I have often said, the world must come together to silence the guns and uphold the values of the UN Charter,” the UN chief said in a statement.
“I welcome this support and will continue to spare no effort to save lives, reduce suffering and find the path of peace,” said the secretary-general.
Earlier in the day Friday, the council released a statement expressing “deep concern” for the maintenance of peace and security in Ukraine.
“The Security Council recalls that all member states have undertaken, under the Charter of the United Nations, the obligation to settle their international disputes by peaceful means,” said the statement.
“The Security Council expresses strong support for the efforts of the secretary-general in the search for a peaceful solution. The Security Council requests the secretary-general to brief the Security Council in due course after the adoption of the present statement,” it said.
Guterres met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev last week.
The visits led to joint UN and International Committee of the Red Cross operations evacuating 500 civilians from Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol and the besieged Azovstal steel plant in recent days.
A draft Security Council resolution that would have deplored Moscow’s special military operation was vetoed by Russia on Feb. 25. The international community has been concerned about the unity of the council in regard to its attitude toward the Ukraine crisis ever since.
MEANWHILE, a new UN convoy was in besieged 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.
The mayor of Mariupol estimates around 200 civilians remain sheltering in dismal conditions in the plant’s Soviet-era underground tunnels.
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