UN Secretary General António Guterres warned Russia on Tuesday that it would be impossible for it to take control of all Ukraine and urged Moscow to stop the attacks and negotiate peace.
Guterres, speaking to journalists, stressed that there is “diplomatic progress” on several key issues of the conflict that must be “sufficient” for a cessation of hostilities to be declared right now and to advance serious negotiations.
“This war cannot be won. Sooner or later, he will have to move from the battlefield to the peace table. This is inevitable,” insisted the head of the United Nations, who denounced that Ukrainians are living “hell”.
In that regard, Guterres drew attention to the “systematic bombing that terrorizes civilians”; the attacks on hospitals, schools, homes and shelters and to how that whole campaign is intensifying with each passing day.
“For more than two weeks now Mariupol has been surrounded by the Russian Army and bombed relentlessly. For what? Even if Mariupol falls, Ukraine cannot conquer itself city by city, street by street, house to house. The only result of all this is more suffering, more destruction and more horror,” he said.
Guterres, who did not accept questions, was very forceful in his criticism of Russia during his statements today, the harshest since the start of the conflict, referring to the Moscow movement as a “massive invasion” of sovereign territory in violation of the UN Charter.
“Continuing the war in Ukraine is morally unacceptable, politically indefensible and militarily meaningless,” stressed the Portuguese, who stressed that “it is time to end this absurd war.”
In addition to the “hell” that Ukrainians are experiencing - 10 million people have been displaced in less than a month of conflict - “reverberations are being felt around the world with food, energy and fertilizer prices sky-high threatening to unleash a global hunger crisis,” he warned.
This Wednesday, a special meeting of the UN General Assembly was convened by a group of countries, the 11th since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24. It is hoped that a new resolution on the humanitarian consequences of the conflict, proposed by Mexico and France, will be put to the vote.
On March 2, 141 countries voted in favor of another resolution condemning the Russian invasion against 35 abstentions (including China, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Bolivia, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, or Pakistan) and five votes against (North Korea, Syria, Belarus, Eritrea and Russia itself).
The current project is opposed by Russia and several of its allies, who do not want the country's name to appear in the text, claiming that it “politicizes” it.
A European diplomat, who asked for anonymity, told the press on Monday that it is necessary to “isolate Russia” and that countries like “China” should “distance themselves” from Moscow, which last week gave up voting on another draft resolution on the humanitarian situation in the Security Council in the face of lack of support.
(With information from EFE and AFP)
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