Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused to receive the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) in Kyiv because Antonio Guterres had previously visited Kazan in Russia where he participated in the BRICS summit.
This information was confirmed for the AFP agency by a senior official of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
“After Kazan, he wanted to come to Ukraine, but the president did not confirm his visit because of the humiliation inflicted on international law in Kazan,” said the official, who wished to remain anonymous.
Guterres came to Russia to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the BRICS summit, which was attended by the leaders of India and China, among others. During the conversation, the UN Secretary–General repeated to Putin “his position that the Russian invasion of Ukraine” violates international law, according to a statement from his spokesman’s office.
The Kremlin has not yet released any information about the content of their private talks. Before the meeting, Guterres again called before the summit participants for a “just peace” in Ukraine. Even before the Putin-Guterres talks, Kyiv criticized the UN Secretary General’s “wrong choice” to go to Kazan, which only “damaged the reputation of the UN”, according to Klix.ba.
