He warned that the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are turning into “a mirage of what might have been..reports Asian Lite News
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for worldwide engagement and support to renew the international financial architecture, which he said was created for a world “no longer exists”.
Guterres made the remarks on Monday at the opening of the Financing for Development Forum, which takes place at the UN headquarters in New York from April 17 to 20, Xinhua news agency reported.
He warned that due to a multidimensional crisis, the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are turning into “a mirage of what might have been,” as communities and governments struggle to meet immediate needs.
Inequalities within some countries are regressing toward early 20th century levels, a time before women were allowed to vote, and before widespread acceptance of the concept of social protection, he said.
In the longer term, we will not solve today’s challenges by relying on the financial system that helped to cause them.
We need engagement & support from all corners of the world to renew the international financial architecture for the challenges of today & tomorrow.
According to Guterres, the United Nations has proposed the SDG Stimulus plan to scale up affordable long-term financing for all countries in need, aiming to boost investments that will help to achieve the SDGs, relieve the debt burden of developing countries, and improve access to funding.
“In the longer term, we will not solve today’s challenges by relying on the financial system that helped to cause them,” he noted.
The global financial architecture was created for a world that no longer exists, Guterres said, adding that “it cannot address the challenges faced today by developing countries” and “has failed countries at their moment of greatest need.”
It is now widely recognized that the world needs an economic system that is coherent and coordinated, and reflects today’s global economic reality, a system that supports stable economic conditions and helps countries to invest in the SDGs, he said.
“We need engagement and support from all corners of the world to renew the international financial architecture and make it able to face the challenges of today and tomorrow,” said Guterres.
Kevadia, Oct 20 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres at the launch of the Mission LiFE at Statue of Unity in Ekta Nagar, in Kevadia on Thursday. (ANI Photo)
Guterres urges India-led G20 for a Climate Solidarity Pact in which wealthier countries mobilize financial and technical resources to support emerging economies, writes Arul Louis…reports Asian Lite News
As a panel of UN experts warned that India’s food production could see a massive fall if global warming went unchecked, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that he was asking the G20 for a pact to keep warming to 1.5 degrees centigrade.
“In India, rice production can decrease from 10 per cent to 30 per cent, whereas maize production can decrease from 25 per cent to 70 per cent assuming a range of temperature increase from 1 degree centigrade to 4 degrees centigrade,” a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said on Monday.
Guterres said that he has proposed to the India-led G20, the group of major emerging and developed economies, “a Climate Solidarity Pact – in which all big emitters make extra efforts to cut emissions, and wealthier countries mobilize financial and technical resources to support emerging economies in a common effort to keep 1.5 degrees alive”.
Although he cautioned that “the climate time-bomb is ticking”, he also sounded a note of hope: “Today’s IPCC report is a how-to guide to defuse the climate time-bomb. It is a survival guide for humanity”.
The report shows that global warming can be kept down to 1.5 degrees centigrade, “but it will take a quantum leap in climate action”, Guterres said.
He said that he is presenting a plan to “a super-charge” the Climate Solidarity Pact.
It would require “leaders of developed countries committing to reaching net zero as close as possible to 2040, and developing countries as close as possible to 2050”, he said.
Guterres’s plan calls for an end to use of coal and net-zero electricity generation by 2035 for all developed countries and 2040 for the rest of the world.
It also requires an immediate stop to all licensing or funding of new oil and gas ventures, and expansion of existing ones.
The report known as the Sixth Synthesis Report of the IPCC said that temperatures have already risen to 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels because of fossil fuel burning and unequal and unsustainable energy use.
This has led to more frequent and intense extreme weather dangerously impacting people around the world, it said.
UN secretary general António Guterres is to push G20 countries to commit to a global climate solidarity pact, whereby all big carbon emitters scale up efforts to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. https://t.co/QtvssMJDfw
Without action to hold global warming, “in South Asia, extreme climatic conditions are threatening food security; thus, agro-based economies, such as those of India and Pakistan, are the most vulnerable to climate change in this regard”, the report said
India is “emerging as the most vulnerable nation in terms of crop production” in South Asia, it said.
It said that in South Asia, “water demand in sectors such as irrigation, industry and households will increase by 30 per cent to 40 per cent around 2050 in comparison with 2010”.
“Within a country as well, the water scarcity could be exacerbated, such as in India and China, due to various drivers like population increase and climate change,” it added.
Strong earthquakes and aftershocks hit Turkey and neighbouring Syria on February 6, with the death toll climbing to over 35,000 people as of Monday….reports Asian Lite News
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the world body is launching a humanitarian appeal for $397 million for the people of earthquake-hit Syria.
“This will cover a period of three months”, Guterres told reporters, adding that “we are in the final stages” of a similar appeal for Turkey, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Syria effort brings together the entire UN system and humanitarian partners and will help secure desperately needed, life-saving relief for nearly 5 million Syrians, including shelter, healthcare, food and protection, Guterres said.
“The most effective way to stand with the people is by providing this emergency funding,” he noted.
Strong earthquakes and aftershocks hit Turkey and neighbouring Syria on February 6, with the death toll climbing to over 35,000 people as of Monday.
In the immediate aftermath of the earthquakes, the United Nations rapidly provided $50 million through the Central Emergency Response Fund.
“But the needs are immense,” Guterres said, pointing out that one week after the devastating earthquakes, millions of people across the region are struggling for survival, homeless and in freezing temperatures.
“We are doing all we can to change this. But much more is needed,” he said.
Rescuers carry out rescue operation with rescue dogs in Adiyaman, Turkey, Feb. 8, 2023. The death toll from Monday’s devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria has surpassed 17,000, according to latest data. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)
The UN chief stressed that the human suffering from this epic natural disaster should not be made even worse by manmade obstacles in access, funding and supplies.
“Aid must get through from all sides, to all sides, through all routes — without any restrictions,” he said.
“I urge member states and others to fully fund this effort without delay and help the millions of children, women and men whose lives have been upended by this generational disaster,” said Guterres.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 8.8 million people in Syria were affected by last week’s devastating earthquakes.
The damage is worse in the north-west of the country, where more than 4.2 million people have been affected in Aleppo, and 3 million people have been affected in Idlib, OCHA said on Tuesday in a press release, adding that more than 7,400 buildings have been completely or partially destroyed.
“Water, electricity, heating and social services are under severe pressure. The risk of waterborne diseases is high, particularly amid an ongoing cholera outbreak,” the UN agency said. “Emergency health care is limited, and lack of fuel and heavy machinery is hampering efforts to quickly reach people most in need.”
The UN funding appeal of nearly $400 million will benefit 4.9 million people with the most urgent humanitarian needs, OCHA said.
The appeal aims to provide essential shelter, health, food, water, sanitation, non-food items, education, nutrition and protection services, as well as carrying out essential light repairs and rehabilitation to restore health, water and sanitation, agriculture and education infrastructure, and supply chains.
It also intends to support livelihoods by providing short-term employment for debris clearance and small-scale rehabilitation, provide protection services, mental health and psychosocial support, and gender-based violence case management, said OCHA.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to the press at the UN headquarters in New York, Aug. 3, 2022.(Xinhua/Xie E/IANS)
The nearly year-long conflict has been intensifying in recent weeks with fierce battles between Ukrainian and Russian forces for control of towns in eastern Ukraine…reports Asian Lite News
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday he fears the world was heading for a “wider war” as the potential for escalation of the Ukraine war continues.
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine is inflicting untold suffering on the Ukrainian people, with profound global implications. I fear the world is not sleepwalking into a wider war, but doing so with eyes wide open. We need peace – in line with the @UN Charter & international law,” tweeted Guterres. In a speech to the 193-member UN General Assembly on Monday presenting his 2023 priorities, Guterres decried the Russian invasion of Ukraine, reported Al Jazeera.
The nearly year-long conflict has been intensifying in recent weeks with fierce battles between Ukrainian and Russian forces for control of towns in eastern Ukraine.
He pointed to the war in Ukraine, “runaway climate catastrophe, rising nuclear threats,” the widening gulf between the world’s haves and have-nots, and the “epic geopolitical divisions” undermining “global solidarity and trust.”
Guterres said the transformation needed today must start with peace, beginning in Ukraine — where, unfortunately, he said, peace prospects “keep diminishing” and “the chances of further escalation and bloodshed keep growing.”
He said this year’s 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should serve as a reminder that the foundation of the inalienable rights of all people is “freedom, justice and peace,” reported ABC News.
The world must work harder for peace, Guterres said, not only in Ukraine but in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict “where the two-state solution is growing more distant by the day,” in Afghanistan where the rights of women and girls “are being trampled and deadly terrorist attacks continue” and in Africa’s Sahel region where security is deteriorating “at an alarming rate.”
He also called for stepped-up peace efforts in military-ruled Myanmar which is facing new violence and repression, in Haiti where gangs are holding the country hostage, “and elsewhere around the world for the two billion people who live in countries affected by conflict and humanitarian crises.”
The secretary-general said it is time for all countries to recommit to the UN Charter, which calls for peaceful settlement of disputes, and for a new focus on conflict prevention and reconciliation. (ANI)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to the media at the launch of a report by Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance over the Ukraine crisis, at the UN headquarters in New York, April 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie E/IANS)
India has declared that it will not use nuclear weapons first, as has China, but others with atomic weapons have not adopted the policy…reports Asian Lite News
Warning that poverty and hunger are rising around the world, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has asked the G20 nations led by India to come up with a package offering investments and debt relief to nations of the Global South to help achieve the UN’s development goals.
Unveiling his proposal for a ‘New Agenda for Peace’ during a briefing on his priorities for this year, Guterres told the General Assembly on Monday that by the time of the summit on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September, “I urge the G20 to agree on the global SDG Stimulus that I proposed at last November’s G20 Summit to support the countries of the Global South”.
His New Agenda proposals covered a gamut of issues that included preventing a nuclear holocaust, reforms of the economic infrastructure, new technologies, social media and bigotry.
Guterres projected a gloomy picture of the world “staring down the barrel of a confluence of challenges unlike any other in our lifetimes” with wars, economic inequalities, Aclimate change and “epic geopolitical divisions”.
His most serious warning was about the threat of a nuclear war, pointing out that the “Doomsday Clock” of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that purports to show the likelihood of a nuclear holocaust was at 90 seconds to midnight.
“We are at the highest risk in decades of a nuclear war that could start by accident or design” from “the 13,000 nuclear weapons held in arsenals around the world,” he said.
“Nuclear-armed countries must renounce the first use of these unconscionable weapons,” he said.
India has declared that it will not use nuclear weapons first, as has China, but others with atomic weapons have not adopted the policy.
Guterres also called attention to “the dangers posed by new technologies”.
He said that the New Agenda should include “international bans on cyberattacks on civilian infrastructure, and internationally agreed limits on lethal autonomous weapons systems”, a reference to robots and drones.
He suggested a new type of counterterrorist operations by regional force under Security Council mandates as he unveiled his proposal for a New Agenda for Peace with a warning that humanity is facing its “darkest hour”.
Glad to meet Speaker of National Assembly of Zambia, Nelly Mutti and her delegation today in Parliament House.
Discussed our economic & development cooperation, as also people to people ties. Assured that India will speak up for the Global South in G20. pic.twitter.com/foV4GpolWW
He said, “The New Agenda for Peace must recognize the need for a new generation of peace enforcement missions and counter-terrorist operations, led by regional forces, with a Security Council mandate under Chapter VII” of the UN Charter that provides for action on threats to peace.
The prospect for peace is diminishing in the Russian invasion of Ukraine while “the chances of further escalation and bloodshed keep growing”, he said
“I fear the world is not sleepwalking into a wider war. I fear it is doing so with its eyes wide open,” Guterres said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) meets with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Kiev on April 28, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Office/Handout via Xinhua/IANS)
Neither Russia nor Ukraine nor the EU is gaining from this war, neither is the rest of the world, especially the poorer countries, writes Prof. Madhav Das Nalapat
Wars are a catalogue of misery brought about by miscalculation. When he gave the command to launch the “Special Military Operation” against Ukraine that began on 24 February 2022, President Vladimir Putin would not have been aware of what much later was revealed by Angela Merkel and others. That the Minsk process, on which Moscow had pinned its expectations of a peace settlement, was only a ruse designed to give the regime in Kiev sufficient time.
This was to prepare for a Ukrainian offensive designed to retake the territories lost after the success of the 2014 regime change operation in Ukraine, with indirect but very substantial involvement by NATO. Given that Russian intelligence agencies have honeycombed the Kiev establishment, that there would shortly be such a military offensive would have become known to the Kremlin. Rather than wait for the blow to fall in the manner Saddam Hussein did in 2003, Putin decided on a pre-emptive strike before the Ukrainian military had completed preparations for the recapture of Lugansk and Donetsk, if not Crimea.
The “Special Military Operation” presented an opportunity for war planners within NATO to entangle that Russian military in a quagmire such as what the alliance had faced in Afghanistan as a consequence of the Pakistan military sabotaging efforts at eliminating the Taliban. In other words, Ukraine in the 2020s was to be what Afghanistan had been to the Soviet Union in the 1980s, a bleeding wound that would drain away the resolve and resources of the Russian military.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) meets with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Kiev on April 28, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Office/Handout via Xinhua/IANS)
Surprisingly, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had been elected on a promise to pursue peace rather and confrontation with Russia metamorphosed into as determined a champion of such a kinetic challenge to the Kremlin as Russophobes such as Petro Poroshenko, who had been installed in 2014 to head the government in Kiev that was to win back territories that had been lost during that year. Since then, the government in Kiev had sought to pummel the territories lost by constant harassment caused by shelling that resulted in a consistent drip drip drip of civilian lives lost in Donetsk and Lugansk.
Concurrently, an influence building operation was launched that has become among the most successful in its genre. This was to portray Ukraine as a country denuded of Russian-speaking citizens, and which historically had only the most tenuous of links with Russia, neither of which is true. Next was to portray the post-2014 governments in Kiev as exemplars of integrity and having the finest of cultural traditions to be found in Europe. The final touch was to link Ukraine to the defence not just of western civilisation but western security, such that any increase in Russian influence in that country would go counter to both western civilisation and security.
After Russia launched its war on Ukraine last year, such a process was speeded up by barring any media outlet that portrayed a Russian perspective on the conflict. Few of the many across both sides of the Atlantic who seek to educate the rest of the world on the desirability of freedom of speech appear to disagree with the view of chancelleries in the western world that the only way to protect free speech was to bar any that was at variance with the approved version of events in Ukraine. Similar is their view that jailing Julian Assange or Chelsea Manning was essential to the preservation of democracy in the West.
As mentioned by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, it is extraordinary that Europe believes its own problems to be the world’s problems, but does not consider the rest of the world’s problems to be its problems. Whether it be Asia, Africa or South America, very few countries back the stance taken by the NATO powers on the Ukraine war, that the defeat of Russia is an existential battle for democracy itself. Their prowess in Perception Management resulted in several media outlets and commentators in the three continents mentioning breathlessly forecasting from the close of March 2022 itself that the Ukrainian military was on the cusp of pushing Russian forces back towards the vicinity of Moscow.
Similar to a carrot being waved in front of a donkey to get the animal to trot along carrying the cart with him, this “cusp of victory” seems to be getting not less but more distant by the month. The problem is that Europe’s problem has become the world’s problem. More than the war, the sanctions imposed against Russia by the US, EU and others have caused shortages of essential commodities and inflation across the world. They have also underscored the imperative of moving away from the US dollar as the global reserve currency, given the collateral damage that a rising dollar is causing to the debt burdens of poor countries and to global inflation.
A rising dollar may not be as helpful as is supposed in taming inflation in the US, but it certainly pushes inflation and consequent misery in countries that have a low per capita income. As for the inflation now being witnessed in the US, the UK and the EU, a substantial portion of that has been self-inflicted, through the backfire of sanctions. Not that this gets mentioned in a media that has cosily embedded itself within the pre-approved information stream of NATO.
Before the war, the perception within the Atlanticist world was that Vladimir Putin, if replaced, would give way to another Gorbachev or Yeltsin and be as mindful of western needs as the two were. Now, the course of the proxy war between Russia and NATO that is being conducted in Ukraine is steadily ensuring that were Putin to fall, the next in line would be even more hardline than the present President of the Russian Federation.
Not only are the bridges between Russia and the EU, US and UK being burnt, the ashes are being scattered with little hope of retrieval. Neither Russia nor Ukraine nor the EU is gaining from this war, neither is the rest of the world, especially the poorer countries. In the name of bringing back territory lost to Russia in 2014, Ukraine is being destroyed. The only gainer from the present conflict is the CCP, which got a reprieve from attention towards its ultimate geopolitical objectives getting diverted in the way that was the case when 9/11 took place in 2001.
Short of a meltdown of Russia, there is no chance of Ukraine getting back its lost territories. In its eagerness to ensure such a meltdown, NATO goaded by the US, the UK, the Baltic states and Poland are ignoring one red line after the other, bringing closer the point when it will find itself in a direct and cataclysmic direct conflict with the Russian Federation. The time has long past for the conflict to end. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres needs to call for an immediate ceasefire as well as the rollback of Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia. The world must not be forced into enduring the pain of a conflict that both sides to it have blundered into.
Guterres warned against further escalation of the war in Ukraine…reports Asian Lite News
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that he did not expect effective peace talks over the conflict in Ukraine “at the immediate future”.
“I am not optimistic about the possibility of effective peace talks at the immediate future. I do believe that the military confrontation will go on, and I think we’ll have still to wait (for) a moment in which serious negotiations for peace will be possible. I don’t see them on the immediate horizon,” he said.
And that is why the UN is concentrating its efforts on other aspects, such as the increased efficiency and expansion of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allows the export of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products from Black Sea ports, Guterres told an end-of-year press conference at the UN Headquarters in New York.
“We are very interested in accelerating the exchange of prisoners of war and especially when we are approaching Christmas — and both sides (of the conflict) celebrate Christmas in January. I think this would be something very important,” he said.
“So, we’ll go on trying to be useful, offering platforms of dialogue for these aspects to minimize suffering. But we have no illusions that a true peace negotiation would be possible in the immediate future.”
Guterres warned against further escalation of the war in Ukraine.
Commenting on reports of possible new Russian offensives in Ukraine, he said there is enough talk about escalation.
“We have seen a massive escalation already with the heavy bombardment of electrical infrastructure, which, of course, is having a dramatic impact on the living conditions of the Ukrainians at the present moment … So, we don’t need more to talk about escalation.
“My position is very clear. There is never a military solution for these problems. But it is important that a solution is in line with the UN Charter and with international law,” said the UN chief.
He expressed the hope that something positive may happen in 2023.
“When I said I do not see chances for a true peace negotiation on the immediate horizon, I did not mean the whole of 2023. I strongly hope that, in 2023, we’ll be able to reach peace in Ukraine,” he said.
The consequences for the Ukrainian people, for the Russian society and the economy, and for the global economy, especially for developing countries, are reasons for the world to do everything possible to make a peace solution happen before the end of 2023, said Guterres.
Guterres noted that the elimination of nuclear weapons would be the greatest gift “we could bestow on future generations”…reports Asian Lite News
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the use of every means to eliminate the nuclear threat.
Guterres made the appeal at a UN General Assembly high-level meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, which falls on September 26.
“We come together on this international day to speak with one voice. To stand in defence of our world — and our future. And to reject the claim that nuclear disarmament is some impossible utopian dream,” he said on Monday.
He noted that the elimination of nuclear weapons would be the greatest gift “we could bestow on future generations”.
In late August, the 10th Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons failed to result in the adoption of an outcome document.
Expressing disappointment about the conference’s failure to reach a substantive outcome, Guterres vowed that “we will not give up”.
“I urge all states to use every avenue of dialogue, diplomacy and negotiation to ease tensions, reduce risk and eliminate the nuclear threat,” he said.
Guterres also called for a new vision for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, Xinhua news agency reported.
He highlighted the need to take into account the evolving nuclear order, including all types of nuclear weapons and their means of delivery, as well as the need to address the blurring lines between strategic and conventional weapons, and the nexus with new domains of cyber and outer space.
The UN chief urged General Assembly delegates to seize the opportunity and make new commitment to work toward a peaceful future.
“Without eliminating nuclear weapons, there can be no peace. There can be no trust. And there can be no sustainable future,” he added.
The UN chief stressed that the world body calls on all people to lay down weapons and reaffirm their commitment to living in harmony …reports Asian Lite News
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for efforts to eliminate racism and discrimination.
“Over the next 100 days and beyond, let us work to safeguard the human rights of all people and build peaceful and inclusive societies,” the UN chief said in his message for the 100-day countdown to the International Day of Peace, which falls on September 21 annually.
“Together, we can realise the vision of a world free of racism and racial discrimination.”
The UN chief stressed that the world body calls on all people to lay down weapons and reaffirm their commitment to living in harmony with one another every year on September 21, reports Xinhua news agency.
This shared aspiration “is more pressing than ever”, said the Secretary-General.
This year’s theme for the peace day is “End racism. Build peace”.
“Racism poisons societies, normalizes discrimination and spurs violence. We must fight it by countering hate speech, promoting dialogue and addressing the root causes of inequality,” Guterres said.
The International Day of Peace, also officially known as World Peace Day, is a UN-sanctioned holiday dedicated to world peace, specifically the absence of war and violence.
It can be occasioned by a temporary ceasefire in a combat zone for humanitarian aid access.
The day was first celebrated in 1981 and is kept by many nations, political groups, military groups, and people.
On his part, Zelensky said that Ukraine is ready for immediate negotiations to evacuate people from Mariupol and is counting on the UN’s support…reports Asian Lite News
At a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, visiting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres criticised the 15-member Security Council for failing to prevent or end Russia’s ongoing war against Kiev.
During the conference here on Thursday evening, Guterres, who arrived in Ukraine on Wednesday evening following his trip to Moscow, said: “Let me be very clear: (it) failed to do everything in its power to prevent and end this war,” the BBC reported.
He added that this was “a source of great disappointment, frustration and anger”.
The Secretary-General told Zelensky, who has previously criticised the Security Council after it faced criticism for failing to act since the invasion began on February 24, that “I am here to say to you President, and to the people of Ukraine, we will not give up”.
“The UN is the 1,400 staff members in Ukraine who are working to provide assistance, food, cash (and) other forms of support,” the BBC quoted Guterres as saying.
On his part, Zelensky said that Ukraine is ready for immediate negotiations to evacuate people from Mariupol and is counting on the UN’s support.
He also revealed that they also discussed the “food crisis provoked by Russia, increasing humanitarian aid for our country, and the return of Ukrainians deported by occupiers”.
“We appreciate the clear and unimportant position of the Secretary-General regarding the war of Russia against Ukraine.”
Describing Russia’s actions in his country as “genocide”, Zelensky said that Guterres had a chance to witness first-hand “all the war crimes” committed by Moscow since the war began.
After his arrival in Ukraine, Guterres also visited Borodyanka, a town north-west of Kiev destroyed due to Russian shelling.
Speaking to mediapersons in the town, he called the war an “absurdity in the 21st Century” and also appealed to save thousands of people in the besieged southern city of Mariupol.
“Mariupol is a crisis within a crisis… Thousands of civilians need life-saving assistance, many are elderly and in need of medical care, or have limited mobility. They need an escape route out of the apocalypse,” he was quoted as saying by the BBC.
During a meeting with Guterres in Moscow on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in principle to the involvement of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol.
