Ukraine cannot be conquered city by city: the UN envisioned a way out of the conflict

Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), said Tuesday that although the war in Ukraine is not going anywhere, the level of violence is advancing rapidly, however, he stressed that after a dialogue with several actors, elements of diplomatic progress are perceived in several key points.

The UN Secretary-General considered that “there is enough on the table to cease hostilities and to negotiate seriously now. This war is impossible to win. Sooner or later, he will have to move from the battlefield to the peace table. This is inevitable.”

Guterres recalled that Russia's invasion of Ukrainian territory violates the UN Charter and that the attacks have caused atrocious suffering and destruction in cities and villages, where Ukrainian civilians live in terror by the bombing of “hospitals, schools, residential buildings and shelters.”

The Portuguese stressed that for more than two weeks the city of Mariupol has been surrounded by the Russian army, but he said that even if they manage to take it Ukraine cannot be conquered city by city, street by street or house by house. He added that the only result of the Russian advance will be “more suffering, more destruction and more horror as far as the eye can see.”

Antonio Guterres reported that this conflict has left ten million people displaced, according to reports from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and insisted that although a negotiation to achieve peace is imminent, the world still asks itself the following questions: how many more lives must be lost? How many more bombs must be dropped or how many more Mariupols must be destroyed?

The UN official reminded the actors of this conflict and the rest of the countries that the global impact of this war is already having consequences around the world with a skyrocketing rise in food, energy and fertilizer prices, a situation that threatens to become a global hunger crisis.”

For Guterres, this conflict cannot be sustained for long due to lack of funding, as the crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic affected developing countries from before.

In the words of Antonio Guterres, the Ukrainian population is enduring day by day a living hell that, if left unremedied, its effects will also be felt on other countries.

UN humanitarian personnel highlighted the continuous flow of children and families fleeing Russian “incessant bombing”, generating a crisis that is “unprecedented” due to the speed with which hostilities unfold.

Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams, from the UN Refugee Agency, stated that the psychological damage the bombing has had on countless families is alarming, considering that this assessment corresponds only to those who managed to secure themselves at safe borders.

The UN stressed that hundreds of thousands of people lack safe drinking water due to damage to the infrastructure of the hydraulic system, and many have been left without access to other essential services such as medical care.

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