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UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday said Moscow cannot secure a military victory over its smaller neighbour Ukraine even if its besieged port city of Mariupol falls to Russian forces.
“For more than two weeks, Mariupol has been encircled by the Russian army — relentlessly bombed, shelled and attacked,” he told reporters.
“For what? Even if Mariupol falls, Ukraine cannot be conquered city by city, street by street, house by house.”
Officials in Mariupol say the port on the Sea of Azov, which has a peacetime population of 400,000, has no food, medicine, power or running water. Ukraine appealed to Russia on Tuesday to allow humanitarian supplies into the city.
Mr Guterres slammed Russia for its “ghastly, absurd war” and the “appalling human suffering and destruction” in Ukraine, saying the “war is unwinnable”, “going nowhere fast” and that “sooner or later” Moscow would have to cut a peace deal with Kyiv.
The UN chief spoke in New York as Russian forces continued shelling Mariupol, Kyiv and other Ukrainian population centres nearly one month after Moscow launched its land, sea and air assault on the country on February 24.
“The only outcome to all this is more suffering, more destruction, and more horror as far as the eye can see,” said the former prime minister of Portugal.
“The Ukrainian people are enduring a living hell — and the reverberations are being felt worldwide with skyrocketing food, energy and fertiliser prices threatening to spiral into a global hunger crisis.”
Russia has faced international opprobrium and stinging sanctions over the invasion, but has doubled down on a war it says is necessary to halt a further expansion of the Nato military alliance of western allies along its border.
The UN General Assembly and the Security Council are set to vote in the coming days on competing resolutions about protecting civilians caught up in the escalating violence and on bringing more aid to Ukraine.
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Firefighters put out a major blaze caused by Russian shelling at a food warehouse in Severodonetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk region. AFP -
Irina Zubchenko walks her dog Max amid the destruction caused by the shelling of a shopping center in Kyiv. AP -
Ukrainian refugee Masha, 6, plays at the border crossing in Budomierz, Poland. Reuters -
A charred Russian armoured personnel carrier on the front line in the Kyiv region. Reuters -
A volunteer takes position at a checkpoint in a district of Kyiv as Russian forces try to encircle the Ukrainian capital. AFP -
Residents of Kyiv retrieve belongings from their homes in a five-storey residential building that partially collapsed after shelling by Russian artillery. AFP -
Police officers in Moscow detain a woman as she protests against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. AFP -
A resident of the village of Krasylivka after Russian bombardment, part of Moscow's effort to move on Kyiv. AFP -
Tetiana Chornovol, a former Ukrainian MP, prepares to take position with an anti-tank missile on the front line in the Kyiv region. Reuters -
A rescue worker at a shopping mall in Kyiv after a Russian air strike. Reuters -
Ukrainian firefighters rescue a person buried beneath rubble after an explosion at a shopping centre in Kyiv. Reuters -
Ukrainian police officers stand near a warehouse that was hit by the debris of a downed rocket in Kyiv. AFP -
Graves are dug in a street in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol. Reuters -
Pro-Russia militia fighters travel by tank to the outskirts of Mariupol. Reuters -
Milana, 6, who is recovering from leg wounds sustained when a Russian rocket hit her house on February 28, killing her mother, watches volunteers dressed as clowns at a children's hospital in Kyiv. Getty -
Tetyana and other residents wait in Kyiv, after being relocated from Irpin town. EPA -
Rescuers carry a Ukrainian soldier saved after 30 hours trapped in the wreckage of a military school hit by Russian rockets, in Mykolaiv. AFP -
A Ukrainian refugee arrives with her dog at the reception centre about three kilometres from the Moldova-Ukraine border. EPA -
Volunteers in Kyiv prepare packages with food and other goods for Ukrainian soldiers and civilians in cities across the country. EPA -
Residents walk between damaged residential buildings in Mariupol. Reuters -
Participants illuminate the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna with the lights of their smartphones, during the charity concert We Stand with Ukraine. AFP -
Yana Hladiychuk of Ukraine with a "Stop War" message on her face after the women's pole vault, on the second day of the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade. Getty -
An Ukrainian girl in tears after crossing the border in Siret, northern Romania. AFP -
A satellite image shows the aftermath of the Russian air strike on the Mariupol Drama Theatre. EPA/Maxar Technologies -
A woman takes cover in a military trench as a Russian jet fighter flies overhead, near the military school hit by Russian rockets the day before, in Mykolaiv. AFP -
A man walks amid debris in front of a Kyiv residential apartment complex that was heavily damaged by a Russian attack on March 18. Getty -
Residents carry water from a food warehouse, which is under the control of the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic, on the outskirts of Mariupol. AP -
Rescuers work at the site of the National Academy of State Administration building damaged by shelling in Kharkiv. AP -
A satellite image shows artillery strikes and burning fields in Chernihiv. AP / Maxar Technologies -
A resident assesses her damaged flat in Mariupol. Reuters -
Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko keeps people away from a five-storey residential building that partially collapsed after shelling on March 18. AFP -
Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses crowds at a concert in Moscow to mark the eighth anniversary of the annexation of Crimea. AP -
Ukrainian policemen secure a residential area in Kyiv. Sergei Supinsky -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. AP -
A cloud of smoke rises after an explosion in Lviv, western Ukraine, on March 18. AP -
Zinaida Pivtsova, 75, who fled the war in Ukraine, takes shelter in a sports stadium in Przemysl, south-east Poland. AP -
A police officer at abandoned residential buildings in Kyiv. AP -
Inside a shell-damaged school in Kyiv. AP -
A woman cries before starting to clean the site where a bomb damaged residential buildings in Kyiv. AP Photo / Rodrigo Abd -
A woman from Ukraine sits in a car with her children as a volunteer takes them to a hostel in Budapest, Hungary. AP -
An abandoned flat in Kyiv. AP -
A man removes a curtain inside a school in Kyiv. AP -
A worker sets up a billboard with the colours of the Ukrainian flag in Novoiavorisk, near Lviv. AP -
Olga plays with her daughter Vedeneya in an empty park in Kyiv. AP
