UN officials should not be drawn into “pseudo-peace initiatives” to resolve the Ukraine conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday.
Lavrov met with Guterres on the sidelines of the annual high-level gathering of the UN General Assembly in New York.
“An urgent appeal is addressed to Guterres to prevent representatives of UN structures from being drawn into politicized pseudo-peace initiatives in the context of the Ukrainian crisis,” Lavrov said, according to a Foreign Ministry statement issued after the meeting.
The Russian diplomat reiterated the importance of strict adherence by UN officials “to the principles of impartiality and equidistance, including in relation to the crimes of the Kiev regime,” the statement added.
In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled that Moscow would immediately open peace talks with Kiev if Ukraine withdrew troops from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions. The Russian leader also said Kiev must drop its aspirations of joining NATO.
Ukraine rejected the proposal as “unrealistic.” Kiev initiated a so-called ‘peace summit’ in Switzerland in June, to which Russia was not invited. The UN participated as an observer, although Guterres did not attend.
The gathering revolved around the peace formula proposed by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, but did not touch on some of Kiev’s key demands, including the withdrawal of Russian troops from territory Ukraine claims as its own.
Shortly after Kiev launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region in August, Putin stated that peace talks were impossible while Ukraine continues to conduct strikes on civilians and threatens nuclear power plants. Zelensky has claimed the attack is part of his ‘victory plan’ to end the conflict.
Earlier this month, the Ukrainian leader also said he wanted Russia “at the table” during his next ‘peace event’. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova rejected the idea, saying Moscow would not attend any such gathering.