A third operation is under way to evacuate civilians from the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and the besieged Azovstal steel plant, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says.
The United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have so far helped nearly 500 civilians flee the area during two operations in the past week.
At a briefing to the UN Security Council on Thursday, Guterres declined to give details on the new operation “to avoid undermining possible success”.
“I hope that the continued co-ordination with Moscow and Kyiv will lead to more humanitarian pauses to allow civilians safe passage from the fighting and aid to reach those in critical need,” he told the 15-member council.
“We must continue to do all we can to get people out of these hellscapes.”
Since Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine on February 24 – in what Moscow calls a “special military operation” – the United States and western allies have hit back with tough sanctions.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council an economic “world war” was being waged.
“It is as if you were eagerly awaiting this moment to unleash repression against Russia,” Nebenzia said.
“If we were to talk about World War, then without a doubt it is being waged at the economic level today.”
US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, accused Russia of lying to the Security Council.
“Russia alone started this war and Russia alone can end it. Silence the guns, withdraw from Ukrainian territory, and embrace diplomacy,” she said.
Guterres has also warned the war in Ukraine was putting even more pressure on the developing world.
He told the Security Council he was ready to facilitate talks on “reintegrating Ukraine’s agricultural production and the food and fertiliser production of Russia and Belarus into world markets, despite the war.”
