Zelensky rejects UN leader’s visit over trip to Russia – Washington Examiner
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has declined a visit from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres following Guterres’ attendance at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia. The summit was hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin and criticized due to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. Zelensky’s decision not to confirm the visit was attributed to Guterres’ meeting with Putin at the summit, which was seen as a violation of international law and a slight to Ukrainian sensibilities. Guterres’ deputy spokesman stated that while Guterres had expressed a desire to visit Ukraine after a prior meeting with Zelensky, he had not received confirmation of any scheduled visit. The BRICS alliance, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, aims to counterbalance Western influence and reflects Putin’s continuing presence on the global stage despite international isolation efforts related to the war in Ukraine.
Zelensky rejects UN leader’s visit over trip to Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected a visit to Ukraine by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in response to the latter’s trip to Russia for a global summit earlier this week.
Guterres attended the BRICS summit hosted by Russia in the city of Kazan earlier this week, which led to criticism given Russia’s war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted the event, which was also attended by Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among others. Guterres and Putin met on the margins of the summit.
“After Kazan, (Guterres) wanted to come to Ukraine, but the president did not confirm his visit. So Guterres won’t be here, specifically because of the humiliation of sanity and international law in Kazan,” a source in the Ukrainian presidency told AFP.
“I don’t have any confirmation of those reports,” Guterres’s deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told the Washington Examiner. “What I can tell you is that the secretary-general had stated his willingness to travel to Ukraine when he met with President Zelensky in September.”
The BRICS alliance, which stands for the original members Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, was created in 2009 to counter growing Western influence. The continued growth of the alliance represents Putin’s continued power on the international stage despite the efforts by the U.S. and the West to isolate him for the war in Ukraine.
His trip to Russia was not well received in Ukraine even though he called for a “just peace” in Ukraine and said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “in violation of the United Nations Charter and international law.”
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “The U.N. secretary-general declined Ukraine’s invitation to the first Global Peace Summit in Switzerland. He did, however, accept the invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin. This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the U.N.’s reputation.”
Ukraine was not the only country to question Guterres’s visit.
“If Antonio Guterres decides to resign, Lithuania won’t try to talk him out of it,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on X, and he also posted a photo of Guterres shaking hands with Putin.
“I can’t imagine why he decided to go,” former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor said on CNN. “Putin is an indicted war criminal, and the U.N. secretary-general went to see him? This is unacceptable.”
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