"Has no leverage anyway": Podoliak says Guterres' visit to Russia is the final nail in the coffin for UN reputation
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' visit to Russian Kazan for the BRICS summit is the last nail in the coffin for the reputation of this organization and its head. However, as the UN currently has no leverage over any situation in the world, this visit will not affect the war in Ukraine.
This opinion was expressed by Mykhailo Podoliak, Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, on the We Are Ukraine TV channel on Saturday, October 26. He is sure that the meeting between Guterres and Russian President Putin was meaningless.
At the same time, the UN will be looking for ways to get out of this situation. In general, these events look like the final moments of UN as an international organization, Podoliak emphasized.
"Moreover, the UN today has no leverage over any crisis situations anyway. It cannot stop not only wars but even small escalations. What can we say about the large-scale conflicts we see in Eastern Europe today? The UN does not even have the tools to deprive a country that splits on the UN Charter of the right to be present in the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly. Therefore, this visit will have no impact on the course of events in the war, on either Russia's or Ukraine's plans, or on the possibility to hold negotiations based on international law," said the advisor.
He believes that this visit and Antonio's bow to Russian dictator Putin, the arrest warrant of whom was issued by the ICC itself, indicates the "final nail in the coffin for UN reputation and Mr. Guterres personally."
As a reminder, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held a number of bilateral meetings during the BRICS summit in Kazan, including with dictators Putin and Lukashenko, which caused great backlash. Ukraine's permanent representative to the UN, Serhiy Kyslytsya, said that according to UN rules, such meetings are prohibited because International Criminal Court has an arrest warrant for him, which should make any official meetings impossible.
Guterres himself made a lame attempt to justify his trip to Kazan and meeting with Putin. He claimed that during the trip, he had allegedly called on the Russian dictator to bring the just peace in Ukraine closer and ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea. Even before the his trip to Russia, UN tried to justify the visit, calling it "standard practice."
As previously reported, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused to invite the UN Secretary-General to Kyiv. Guterres was planning to visit Ukraine after his trip to Kazan.
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António Guterres
Mykhailo Podolyak
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