The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Gutteres has drawn back on his earlier critical position about Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s directive for a military invasion of Ukraine on February 22, 2022.
Gutteres, who is currently in Moscow, Russia for bilateral meetings with Putin and his aides, on February 24 blamed Putin and his army for the hostilities in Ukraine.
“President Putin, stop your troops from attacking Ukraine. Give peace a chance,” he had said in a video uploaded on his official Twitter page on February 22.
But during his parley with Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, on Tuesday, the UN Secretary-General said that the Ukraine war is complex due to the several interpretations associated with it.
He said, “I know that today, we are facing complex situations in Ukraine, different interpretations about what is happening but that does not limit the possibility of a very serious dialogue on how best we can work to minimize the suffering of people”.
He said he remained a very committed multilateralist as canvassed by Russia but it has to be based on the values of the human charter and international law.
He said, “On the other hand, we are extremely interested in finding ways in other to create a situation for effective dialogue, create the conditions for a ceasefire as soon as possible, a peaceful solution.
“And in this context, we are also interested in everything that can be done to minimize the impact in every part of the world”.
Earlier, Lavrov told the UN Sec that Russia’s concern is the foreign policy of Western nations including the United States.
“We have actually responded to your initiative to have another contact in Moscow on a number of issues including definitely the issue around Ukraine that has actually become a catalyst of a great number of problems that have climbed up in the Europe politics.
“And definitely we appreciate your desire for another round of talks for this hard time in other to sit, consider and think properly in an in-depth way about how we should develop a true multilateralism and these principles have for a number of years have been floated by the West,” he said.
Guterres is expected to meet Putin later in the day.
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