United Nations chief heads to Moscow amid criticism from Ukraine

United Nations chief heads to Moscow amid criticism from Ukraine

 

António Guterres to meet Putin and Lavrov but Kyiv says he should have come to Ukraine first

 

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor

Tue 26 Apr 2022 09.22 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/26/un-guterres-putin-meeting-moscow-ukraine-war

 

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has travelled to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin in an attempt to put the UN at the heart of Ukrainian mediation efforts.

 

Guterres has faced criticism from Ukraine for not visiting Kyiv first and for failing to intervene decisively before Russia invaded on 24 February. He is also scheduled to meet the Russian foreign minster, Sergei Lavrov, before travelling to Ukraine.

 

“It is simply wrong to go first to Russia and then to Ukraine,” Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelenskiy, told reporters in Kyiv on Saturday. “There is no justice and no logic in this order. The war is in Ukraine, there are no bodies in the streets of Moscow. It would be logical to go first to Ukraine, to see the people there, the consequences of the occupation”.

 

Some of Zelenskiy’s advisers have said Guterres has no mandate to talk to Russia on their behalf.

 

The timing of the visit seems unpropitious, since both sides are heavily committed to the battle in the two big eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, known collectively as the Donbas, and the Ukrainian army is receiving its greatest supply of heavy armoury from the US than at any point in the fighting.

 

The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said after meeting Zelenskiy on Monday: “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree it cannot do the kind of things it has done in invading Ukraine.”

 

Lavrov for his part has claimed Nato has become a legitimate target due to the supply of this weaponry.

 

More than half – $1.9bn – of US military aid to Ukraine since the war has come in the last two weeks. More than 60% of US military aid to Ukraine since the war has come in over the last month: $2.3bn.

 

The best hope for the Guterres mission is to make progress on ceasefires to help civilians leave trapped cities, and to start to lay the groundwork for how Ukraine’s neutrality could be protected by the major powers once the fighting has ended.

 

Guterres announced his mediation effort after more than 200 former United Nations officials sent him a letter urging him to try to intervene and warning the UN was being marginalised in the crisis to the point of extinction.

 

One of the signatories of the letter, Franz Baumann, a UN assistant secretary general until 2015, told the Guardian that previous secretary generals understood they had a role independent of the security council to protect the UN charter, adding the letter had been written by UN patriots because the honour of the UN needed defending.

 

He said before the war started, the secretary general should have gone to Moscow to demand Putin say if he was sincere when he said the troop movements on Russia’s border of Ukraine did not represent a threat to the integrity of Ukraine, and “if he did not get a satisfactory answer he should have gone to Beijing to the Winter Olympic ceremonies to ask the same question of Russia and China when they met.

 

“Then he should have gone to the capitals that have been hedging such as Pretoria, Brasilia, New Delhi and Ankara to demand they support peace.

 

He added the duty of the secretary General under article 99 of the charter was to bring to the attention of the security council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.

 

“Simply deploring something is not enough,” he said. “He does not seem to have grasped the concept that it is his responsibility to speak on behalf of the charter”.

 

Baumann recalled Kofi Annan’s visit to Baghdad before the Gulf war in 1998 and Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s visit to Sarajevo during the Bosnian war in 1993.

 

Andrew Gilmour, another signatory to the letter and a former UN assistant secretary general for human rights until 2019, said: “It is very important for the long-term credibility of the UN that the SG is now visiting. From what I’m hearing, there are thousands of UN staff – current and past – who in recent weeks have been very anxious for Guterres to go to the affected countries. Yes, there isn’t a big chance that Guterres will pull something off, and it certainly wouldn’t be his fault if doesn’t.

 

“Not being afraid to fail is a crucial leadership attribute for a UNSG – because after all, what’s one person’s self-esteem when one’s talking about averting the horrors of war?

 

“There are millions of people around the world who hope Guterres will really speak truth to power in Moscow and make a passionate but calculated appeal in a way nobody else can do with Putin, and which would be very much of the SG’s job description anyway.”

 

António Guterres to meet Putin and Lavrov but Kyiv says he should have come to Ukraine first

 

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor

Tue 26 Apr 2022 09.22 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/26/un-guterres-putin-meeting-moscow-ukraine-war

 

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has travelled to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin in an attempt to put the UN at the heart of Ukrainian mediation efforts.

 

Guterres has faced criticism from Ukraine for not visiting Kyiv first and for failing to intervene decisively before Russia invaded on 24 February. He is also scheduled to meet the Russian foreign minster, Sergei Lavrov, before travelling to Ukraine.

 

“It is simply wrong to go first to Russia and then to Ukraine,” Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelenskiy, told reporters in Kyiv on Saturday. “There is no justice and no logic in this order. The war is in Ukraine, there are no bodies in the streets of Moscow. It would be logical to go first to Ukraine, to see the people there, the consequences of the occupation”.

 

Some of Zelenskiy’s advisers have said Guterres has no mandate to talk to Russia on their behalf.

 

The timing of the visit seems unpropitious, since both sides are heavily committed to the battle in the two big eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, known collectively as the Donbas, and the Ukrainian army is receiving its greatest supply of heavy armoury from the US than at any point in the fighting.

 

The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said after meeting Zelenskiy on Monday: “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree it cannot do the kind of things it has done in invading Ukraine.”

 

Lavrov for his part has claimed Nato has become a legitimate target due to the supply of this weaponry.

 

More than half – $1.9bn – of US military aid to Ukraine since the war has come in the last two weeks. More than 60% of US military aid to Ukraine since the war has come in over the last month: $2.3bn.

 

The best hope for the Guterres mission is to make progress on ceasefires to help civilians leave trapped cities, and to start to lay the groundwork for how Ukraine’s neutrality could be protected by the major powers once the fighting has ended.

 

Guterres announced his mediation effort after more than 200 former United Nations officials sent him a letter urging him to try to intervene and warning the UN was being marginalised in the crisis to the point of extinction.

 

One of the signatories of the letter, Franz Baumann, a UN assistant secretary general until 2015, told the Guardian that previous secretary generals understood they had a role independent of the security council to protect the UN charter, adding the letter had been written by UN patriots because the honour of the UN needed defending.

 

He said before the war started, the secretary general should have gone to Moscow to demand Putin say if he was sincere when he said the troop movements on Russia’s border of Ukraine did not represent a threat to the integrity of Ukraine, and “if he did not get a satisfactory answer he should have gone to Beijing to the Winter Olympic ceremonies to ask the same question of Russia and China when they met.

 

“Then he should have gone to the capitals that have been hedging such as Pretoria, Brasilia, New Delhi and Ankara to demand they support peace.

 

He added the duty of the secretary General under article 99 of the charter was to bring to the attention of the security council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.

 

“Simply deploring something is not enough,” he said. “He does not seem to have grasped the concept that it is his responsibility to speak on behalf of the charter”.

 

Baumann recalled Kofi Annan’s visit to Baghdad before the Gulf war in 1998 and Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s visit to Sarajevo during the Bosnian war in 1993.

 

Andrew Gilmour, another signatory to the letter and a former UN assistant secretary general for human rights until 2019, said: “It is very important for the long-term credibility of the UN that the SG is now visiting. From what I’m hearing, there are thousands of UN staff – current and past – who in recent weeks have been very anxious for Guterres to go to the affected countries. Yes, there isn’t a big chance that Guterres will pull something off, and it certainly wouldn’t be his fault if doesn’t.

 

“Not being afraid to fail is a crucial leadership attribute for a UNSG – because after all, what’s one person’s self-esteem when one’s talking about averting the horrors of war?

 

“There are millions of people around the world who hope Guterres will really speak truth to power in Moscow and make a passionate but calculated appeal in a way nobody else can do with Putin, and which would be very much of the SG’s job description anyway.”