Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday who will come to Moscow for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, TASS reports.
This will be the first contact of the Russian leader with the UN Secretary General since the beginning of the special military operation on protecting Donbass on February 24.
The last time they interacted was in a video format last May when Guterres also visited Russia. Additionally, last June, Putin sent a telegram to Guterres congratulating him on his re-election. The last time the two politicians met in a face-to-face format was in January 2020 at an international conference on Libya in Berlin.
Ukraine has asked Guterres to guarantee a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians sheltering inside Azovstal plant.
The UN chief is also expected to travel on to Kyiv on Thursday where he will meet President Volodomyr Zelensky.
It is expected that the meeting with Guterres won’t be Putin’s only international contact on Tuesday. Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he had a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart planned for April 26.
Before heading to Moscow and then to Ukraine Guterres arrived in the Turkish capital Ankara on Monday (April 25), Reuters reports.
He was received by President Tayyip Erdogan.
NATO member Turkey shares a maritime border with Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea and has good ties with both countries. It has supported Ukraine while opposing sanctions on Moscow.
The U.N. aid chief, Martin Griffiths, said on April 18 that Turkey was a valuable host for humanitarian talks between Ukraine and Russia.
