Activities of Secretary-General in Ukraine, with Brief Stopover in Poland, 17-19 August
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Lviv in the evening of Wednesday, 17 August, having travelled from New York via Warsaw, Poland. He was greeted by Denise Brown, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Ukraine.
On Thursday, prior to his trilateral meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine and President of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Türkiye, the Secretary-General briefly visited the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.
He was greeted and given a tour by Volodymyr Melnyk, the Rector of the University, which is considered a centre for the study of human rights.
The Rector explained the University’s and its scholars’ important contributions to the world’s science, international law and diplomacy. One of the graduates of the School of International Law, Louis Son, is co-author of the United Nations Charter, and Raphael Lemkin, another graduate, coined the term “genocide”. Students from this University were later judges in the International Criminal Court or nominated to Nobel Prizes, including Jan Karski, the famous Polish diplomat who alerted the world to the on-going holocaust during World War II.
In speaking to reporters afterwards, the Secretary-General noted the links between the United Nations and the University adding that today “more and more the contribution of civil society and the contribution of academia are essential in the development of modern democracies.”
Later in the day, the Secretary-General met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine.
The two were later joined by President Erdoğan for a trilateral meeting.
In his remarks to the press afterwards the Secretary-General, reiterated that the United Nations will go on working in full solidarity with the Ukrainian people to mobilize all of our capacities and resources — alongside our national partners — to continue to provide humanitarian support to people in need wherever it is required.
He also underscored that the positive momentum on the food front reflects a victory for diplomacy — for multilateralism. Getting food and fertilizer out of Ukraine and Russia in larger quantities is crucial to further calm commodity markets and lower prices, Guterres said. “It is essential to provide relief to the most vulnerable people and countries,” he added.
The Secretary-General said he had discussed the investigation of the tragic incident in a detention facility in Olenivka on 29 July.
In relation to that Guterres also announced that he was going to appoint General Carlos dos Santos Cruz of Brazil to lead the fact-finding mission. In order for the mission to work, he told the press, it needs to have the necessary assurances to guarantee secure access to the site and any other relevant locations. To put it simply, the Secretary-General said, a fact-finding mission must be free to find the facts.
After an overnight stay in the town of Vinnytsia, in west-central Ukraine, on Friday the Secretary-General arrived in Odesa, Ukraine’s main Black Sea port where he was greeted by Oleksandr Kubrakov, the country’s infrastructure minister, as well as the Mayor of Odesa, Gennadiy Trukhanov.
The Secretary-General boarded the M/V Kubrosli Y, a bulk carrier loading up some 10,000 metric tons of wheat. Touring the ship, he was able to witness grain filling up the ship’s holding tanks.
In speaking to reporters afterwards, Mr. Guterres expressed his emotion at being able to witness the loading operation. He said that in less than a month, 25 ships have departed from Odesa and other Ukrainian ports, carrying well over 600,000 tons of food products.
As he toured the port, the Secretary-General made a special appeal to the wealthier world for those bearing the brunt of the global food crisis. He said that it is time for massive and generous support so developing countries can purchase the food from Odesa and other ports – and people can buy it.
The Secretary-General departed Odesa for Chisinau, Moldova.