United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the ceasefire in Ukraine for Orthodox Christmas announced by the Russian president, but admitted that the conditions for a desirable lasting solution to the conflict are currently lacking.
“If there can be conditions for people not to die at Christmas, that in itself is positive, but what matters fundamentally is a solution to the conflict, and that solution is only possible on the basis of the United Nations Charter and international law,” Guterres said. told Lusa and Reuters on Thursday, on the sidelines of a ceremony in which he received the 2020 University of Lisbon Prize.
Russian troops fighting in Ukraine will observe a 36-hour ceasefire between noon on January 6 and midnight on January 7, President Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday.
In a statement, the Russian presidency (Kremlin) said Putin was responding to a call from the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Cyril, who was released on Thursday morning.
In response, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Mykhailo Podoliak, described the announcement of a Russian ceasefire in Ukraine as “hypocrisy” and called on Russian troops to leave the country.
For Guterres, “Christmas is of course a special time and a celebration for Ukrainians and Russians”, but despite the ceasefire, he insists on a solution to the conflict.
“At the moment, the conditions have not yet been created for an immediately effective peace solution, but I hope it will be possible to create the conditions for a peace solution based on the Charter of the United Nations and international law,” he said.
The UN Secretary-General also referred to the agreement for the export of grain stored in Ukraine via the Black Sea, stressing the importance of the agreement reached in July between the United Nations and the authorities of Kiev, Moscow and Istanbul, and indicated that more than 15 million tons have already been transported.
“There have been some restrictions on the number of inspections, but the size of the boats has increased, which has allowed us to keep up the pace, not as high as we would like,” he said.
António Guterres, on the other hand, emphasized a message he had already left on August 19 during his visit to the port of Odessa, in the south of Ukraine, about the export of Russian food: “We also remain committed to solving the export problems of Russian fertilizers and grains that the international community also needs”.
The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on February 24 has already led to the flight of more than 14 million people – 6.5 million internally displaced and more than 7.9 million to European countries -, according to the latest data of the UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
Currently, 17.7 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and 9.3 million need food aid and shelter.
The Russian invasion – justified by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and Russia to impose political and economic sanctions.
The UN presented 6,919 civilian deaths and 11,075 wounded as confirmed since the start of the war, emphasizing that these numbers are far below the real ones.
Source: DN
