U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres will be visiting Russia and Ukraine in an effort to halt the fighting between the two countries, but a U.N. spokesman said there is no significance to the fact that he is visiting Russia first, The Hill reports.
“Yes, he is visiting both,” U.N. Deputy-Spokesman Farhan Haq told The Hill. “There is no significance in which country is visited first.”
Haq told reporters during a press briefing that Guterres also hopes to improve the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
"It’s important that he [the Secretary-General] is able to talk clearly with the leadership on both sides and see what progress we can make. Ultimately, the end goal is to have a halt to fighting, and to have ways to improve the situation of the people in Ukraine, lessen the threat that they’re under and provide humanitarian aid towards them," Haq told reporters.
Guterres was already on a plane on Monday headed to Moscow where he is set to be "received" by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, CNN reports. He will have a working meeting and lunch with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
He's then scheduled to travel to Kyiv on Thursday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
Thousands have died on both sides since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Russia's targeting of civilians have left graphic scenes of cities and villages across the country, with calls from Zelenskyy that Russia is committing genocide. President Joe Biden has accused Putin of being "war crimes" over the atrocities.
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