UN chief to meet Putin in Moscow next week

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is heading to Moscow on April 26 for a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to get the Kremlin to cease its war on Ukraine. 

Putin will receive Guterres while the secretary-general has a “working meeting and lunch” with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to a statement from the spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general. 

The meeting comes after Guterres had issued an appeal to meet Putin in Moscow and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv as part of efforts to end the more than two-month war.

“The Secretary-General said, at this time of great peril and consequence, he would like to discuss urgent steps to bring about peace in Ukraine and the future of multilateralism based on the Charter of the United Nations and international law,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the secretary-general, said in a Wednesday statement. 

Russia is one of five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and a founding nation of the United Nations. Its war in Ukraine is described by a majority of other Security Council members as a violation of the U.N. treaty and charter. 

While Russia’s veto power on the Security Council has blocked measures aimed at recording condemnation, the General Assembly has voted twice on resolutions condemning Moscow as the aggressor in the conflict and suspended Russia’s participation on the Human Rights Council of the UN.