The United Nations (UN) may initiate the conclusion of agreements on a humanitarian truce between Ukraine and Russia, the UN press service reports.
“Mr. Guterres said that the UN Humanitarian Affairs chief, Martin Griffiths, would ‘immediately explore’ an agreement with Russia and Ukraine for the ceasefire,” according to a press release published on Monday.
Speaking to reporters on the same day, Guterres said that the war in Ukraine had led to “the war has led to the senseless loss of thousands of lives; the displacement of ten million people, mainly women and children; the systematic destruction of essential infrastructure; and skyrocketing food and energy prices worldwide. This must stop,” the Secretary General said.
Guterres hopes that the truce will ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid, as well as the safety of civilians.
“It [the truce] will save lives, prevent suffering, and protect civilians,” the Secretary General said.
The UN chief made it clear that any solution “to this humanitarian tragedy is not humanitarian. It is political.”
“I am therefore appealing for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, to allow for progress in serious political negotiations, [aimed] at reaching a peace agreement based on the principles of the United Nations Charter,” the Secretary General said.
Losses among civilians from February 24, 2022, when Russia started the war against Ukraine, to 00:00 on March 24, 2022, amounted to 2,788 civilian casualties (2,685 in the report a day earlier), including 1,081 killed (1,035), the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said on Friday.
“OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration,” the UN said in the document.
According to it, this concerns, for example, Mariupol and Volnovakha (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), Severodonetsk and Rubizhne (Luhansk region), and Trostianets (Sumy region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties. These figures are being further corroborated and are not included in the above statistics.
“Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes,” the UN said.
According to confirmed UN data, some 219 men, some 165 women, some 30 boys and 15 girls killed, while the gender of 48 children and 604 adults has not yet been determined.
Among the 1,707 wounded, some 28 girls and 23 boys, as well as 69 children, whose gender has not yet been determined.
Compared to the previous day, according to the UN, three children were killed and two were wounded.
OHCHR said that in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as of midnight on March 25, there were 285 (255) killed and 672 (646) wounded in government-controlled territory, and some 59 (56) killed and 224 (211) wounded in territory controlled by self-proclaimed “republics.”
In other regions of Ukraine under government control (in Kyiv, as well as in Zhytomyr, Zaporizhia, Kyiv, Sumy, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions), the UN recorded 737 (724) killed and 811 (793) wounded.
The report also states that, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, as of 08:00 on March 25, some 135 (128) children were killed and 184 (172) wounded.
In addition, OHCHR said the report of the National Police of Kharkiv region, according to which, as of 18:00 on March 24, some 306 (294) civilians, including 15 (15) children, were killed in the region.
The increase in indicators in this report compared to the figures in the previous report should not be attributed only to new cases that occurred on March 24, since OHCHR also verified a number of cases that occurred in previous days during the day, the UN said in the document.
The G7 countries and the UN are ready to provide Ukraine with full support in increasing the export of Ukrainian agricultural products via new logistics routes, bypassing its ports blocked by the aggressor country of the Russian Federation, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Roman Leschenko said on his Telegram channel on Tuesday.
They are also ready to help in the sowing campaign, the supply of food and fuel, Leschenko wrote about the results of the online meeting of the ministers of agricultural policy of the G7 countries, the EU Commissioner for Agricultural Policy, as well as representatives of the UN World Food Program and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
“We discussed the situation with food and sowing in Ukraine. I am grateful to the partners for their sincere understanding and for their support in expanding the markets for Ukrainian agricultural products through new logistics routes, supporting fuel and lubricants in the sowing campaign in Ukraine and supplying food kits for Ukrainians into the war zone,” the minister said.
He said that the meeting participants expressed their full support for Ukraine in these issues, and expressed hope for a quick joint solution of all challenges facing Ukraine.
On Monday, September 20, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky will leave for the United States, where he will take part in the General Assembly of the United Nations, press secretary of the head of the Ukrainian state Serhiy Nykyforov said.
“It is already official statement that on Monday, the visit of the President of Ukraine to the United States will start. Volodymyr Zelensky will take part in the UN General Assembly, make a speech there, and he will also have a number of bilateral meetings with leaders of other states, with representatives of international organizations, in particular with the UN Secretary General, business representatives, investors and the Ukrainian community in the United States,” Nykyforov said at a briefing on Friday.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky may appoint Ambassador of Ukraine to the UN Volodymyr Yelchenko as the ambassador of Ukraine to the United States of America, the Ukrainian Voice of America service reports.
“At this post [Ukrainian Permanent Representative to the UN], an experienced diplomat Yelchenko repeatedly resolutely maintained Ukraine’s position, often in fierce exchanges of remarks with the Russian delegation during the organization’s meetings,” it said.
Zelensky said during a press marathon on October 10 that he had decided on the candidacy of the ambassador to the United States, but did not say who he had chosen.
“A person has been chosen, this is experienced person, a diplomat, who knows the United States very well. I think he will be appointed in the near future,” Zelensky said then.
Earlier, Valeriy Chaly held the post of ambassador.
AMBASSADOR, U.S.А, UKRAINE, UN
