Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin said during his meeting with UN Secretary-General António Guterres the fighting in the southeastern Ukrainian port of Mariupol was once again declared over. “There are no hostilities there, they are over,” he said Putin on Tuesday in the Kremlin at a long oval table at a great distance Guterres. At the same time he called on the Ukrainian troops to release the civilians in the Mariupol steelworks.
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According to the United Nations, Moscow believes that the UN could play a role in a possible evacuation of the plant. “The President agreed in principle to the involvement of the United Nations and of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol,” the UN said. The United Nations should remain in contact with the Russian Ministry of Defense on the subject. During the conversation with Putin it was also about improving humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
The Kremlin chief claimed that civilians in Mariupol were being used as human shields. If they were not released, the Ukrainian troops acted “like terrorists in many countries around the world”. During the conversation in the Kremlin, excerpts of which were shown on Russian state television, he spoke Guterres again for a humanitarian corridor at the steel mill. The Ukrainian government had spoken of ongoing fighting and Russian troops accused of sabotaging the corridors.
The UN chief hit a group of representatives of the UN, the Red Cross and of the Ukrainian and Russian military to take care of the safe functioning of the humanitarian corridors. Guterres had previously met with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for a discussion lasting several hours. He repeatedly criticized the Russian invasion of Ukraine and called for a ceasefire.
Red Cross to help with evacuation from Mariupol
UN spokesman Stephen Dujarric said Guterres and Putin “agreed in principle” that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) should be involved in the evacuation of civilians holed up in the Azov-Steel industrial complex in Mariupol. There will be further talks on this topic between the Russian Ministry of Defense and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Putin also commented on the negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv for an end to hostilities in Ukraine. First of all, a “breakthrough” was achieved in Turkey. Then Ukraine changed its position – after the “provocation in Bucha”. Hundreds of bodies were found in the suburb of the capital Kyiv after Russian troops withdrew. Ukraine speaks of a massacre of civilians and accuses Russia of war crimes.
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“The Russian army has nothing to do with it,” claimed Putin now again. Russia knows who did it, by what means, and in what way. The former intelligence chief gave no details. Lots of eyewitnesses, journalists, coroners and Western politicians got a picture of the crimes in Bucha. Despite this, Russia claims to have nothing to do with it.
UN Secretary-General Guterres now wants to travel on to Ukraine via Poland, where he will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday. Last is the pressure on Guterres grown to take a more active role in the conflict between Russia and to take over Ukraine. Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24. (dpa)
