UN chief pledges to work towards ‘just peace’ for Ukraine

Kyiv, Mar 8 (EFE).- Antonio Guterres met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday in Kyiv to “seek solutions” to achieve the ultimate goal of a “just peace,” the UN secretary-general said.

“The sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine must be upheld within its internationally recognized borders,” Guterres said at the start of a press conference in the Ukrainian capital.

“Our ultimate objective is equally clear: a just peace based on the UN Charter, international law and the recent General Assembly resolution marking one year since the start of the war,” he added.

Guterres said achieving that goal was still possible, and that the UN would continue its efforts to mitigate the war’s impact on both the Ukrainian people and the global population.

He pointed out that the Ukrainian grain corridor initiative through the Black Sea has already allowed 23 million tons of grain to be exported, reducing the global price of food and providing “critical relief” to people in the world’s developing regions “also paying a high price for this war.”

Guterres, who embarked on Tuesday on his third trip to Kyiv since the war began, also addressed the international grain deal signed last year to allow Ukrainian and Russian food and fertilizer exports which are “essential to global food security and food prices”.

“I would like to underscore the critical importance of the rollover of the Black Sea Grain Initiative on 18 March and of working to create the conditions to enable the greatest possible use of export infrastructures through the Black Sea in line with the objectives of the initiative,” he said.

He also said that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been “mobilized” to safeguard the safety of nuclear power plants in Ukraine, including Europe’s largest facility in Zaporizhzhia.

The Ukrainian president, meanwhile, said his meeting with Guterres was fundamental to discuss “how to restore peace, international security and the full force of the UN Charter, norms that are equally important for all nations of the planet.”

Zelenskyy added that the extension of the Black Sea grain corridor beyond March 18 was “critically necessary for the whole world,” Ukrinform, Ukraine’s official news agency, reported.EFE

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