in Moscow, Guterres pleads for a ceasefire “as soon as possible”

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres pleaded on Tuesday, during his first trip to Moscow since the start of the Russian offensive, for a ceasefire in Ukraine “as soon as possible”.

“What interests us a lot is to find the means to create the conditions for an effective dialogue, to create the conditions for a ceasefire as soon as possible”said Antonio Guterres before talks with the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov.

Although the situation in Ukraine is “complex, with different interpretations of what is happening there”it is possible to have a “serious dialogue about how best to work to minimize people’s suffering”he added.

After his meeting with Sergei Lavrov, Antonio Guterres was to be received by President Vladimir Putin.

After Moscow, he must go to kyiv, where his choice to go to Russia first has been strongly criticized, President Volodymyr Zelensky saying he does not see “no justice and no logic in this order”.

Since the beginning of the Russian intervention in Ukraine on February 24, the UN has appeared marginalized in the conflict, among other things because of the rupture caused by this crisis between the five permanent members of the Security Council, of which Moscow is a part with Washington. , Paris, London and Beijing.