Ukraine is ready for urgent negotiations to evacuate people from Mariupol and counts on the support of the United Nations Organization.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated it as the result of the meeting with the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
The head of the state said the parties also discussed the food crisis caused by russia, the increase of humanitarian aid for our country, return of Ukrainians deported by occupants back home.
“We appreciate the clear and unambiguous position of Mr. Secretary-General on the war of russia against Ukraine,” – the President of Ukraine stressed.
After the meeting of the President of Ukraine and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Vice Minister – Minister on Reintegration of Temporary Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk expressed hope that the evacuation of peaceful citizens from Azovstal will be possible.
“The hope emerged that we will manage to evacuate civilians from Azovstal. The President and the team make great efforts. It is one of the top priorities. We start planning the humanitarian operation,” Vereshchuk said.
As it was informed, today, during his visit to Ukraine, the UN Secretary-General visited Borodyanka in the Kyiv region.
On 27 April, the UN Secretary-General arrived in Ukraine. Earlier he visited moscow where he had a meeting with russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Serhii Lavrov. The UN Secretary-General has also a meeting with volodymyr putin. They discussed proposals on humanitarian aid and evacuation of civilians from the conflict zones related to the situation in Mariupol.
After the meeting, the press secretary of Mr.Guterres informed that putin agreed in evacuation of civilians from Azovstal. The following day, however, Kremlin announced that “there was no concrete agreement in relation to assistance in evacuation of civilians from Azovstal”.
Earlier President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that he hoped that the visit of Mr.Guterres to moscow followed by the visit to Kyiv is “actually about help and not about political tourism”. Zelenskyy also stated that he expected from the Secretary-General of the United Nations 100 percent support. He announced a possible visit by Mr. Guterres of the places of torture of Ukrainians by the russian military.