UN Secretary General Tells Whether Talks Between Ukraine and Russia Are Possible

The UN Secretary General supports Ukraine in the war with the Russian occupiers and has visited Kyiv and Lviv. Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are not going to take place in the near future, but there is hope that the war in Ukraine will end in 2023. UN Secretary General António Guterres said this on Monday, December 19, during a press conference. “I am not optimistic about the possibility of effective peace negotiations in the near future. I believe that the military confrontation will continue and that we will still have to wait for the moment when serious negotiations for peace will be possible,” he said. He also noted that the organization is focused on making the grain agreement more effective, adding new components to it, namely ammonia exports. “We are also interested in speeding up the exchange of prisoners,” Guterres noted. He also expressed his hope that Russia’s war against Ukraine would end in 2023. “When I said that I don’t see opportunities for peace talks in the short term, I wasn’t referring to the whole of 2023. I really hope that in 2023 we will be able to achieve peace in Ukraine,” said the UN Secretary General. We shall remind you that the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution of Ukraine condemning Russian repression and human rights violations in occupied Crimea.