BRICS, Kiev scolds Guterres: “He discredits the UN by meeting Putin.” He in the chamber: “Peace is fair for Ukraine.”

General Secretary at Kazan Summit Meets Kremlin Chief: First Time Since February 2022

ROME – After more than two years, the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres meets the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. The occasion is the summit of the BRICS, the economic organization of emerging countries, which ends today in Kazan, Russia. The last time Guterres had a face-to-face meeting with the head of the Kremlin was immediately after the aggression of Russian forces against Ukraine, on February 24, 2022, which triggered the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war.
Before the bilateral meeting, Putin said at the assembly gathered in the Russian city of Kazan that the West is cultivating “illusions” if it thinks it can militarily defeat the Russian army in Ukraine. Then, speaking on the current conflict in the Middle East, he said that the region “is on the brink of a full-scale war”. At the same time, the Kremlin chief is receiving pressure over the war in Ukraine, particularly from China. President Xi Jinping in particular, also thinking of the Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, said: “We must continue to push for a ceasefire”, then sent a message: “I hope that the BRICS can be a stabilizing force for peace”.

For his part, Guterres, speaking at the international forum, called for “a just peace” for Ukraine and in turn encouraged a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.

The decision of the UN Secretary General to accept Putin’s invitation has sparked protests from Ukraine: “The UN Secretary General – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kiev wrote in a note – has declined Ukraine’s invitation to first world peace summit in Switzerland, but accepted the invitation to Kazan of the war criminal Putin. This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the reputation of the UN”. Last summer’s Summit in Switzerland was attended by dozens of countries, with the exception of Russian delegates.

There is an international arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes committed in Ukraine against Vladimir Putin. However, this has not prevented over thirty world leaders from accepting the invitation to Kazan for a summit that aims to propose an innovative financial platform and alternative to the mechanisms of the dollar “Western hegemony”.
Secretary Guterres has always condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine, and has promoted efforts to create a “grain corridor” to allow cargo ships loaded with cereals to pass through the Black Sea, from Ukraine to the main international markets.