Immediately after his visit to Moscow, António Guterres arrived in Kyiv. After a short press conference, the UN general secretary was brought to the towns of the Kyiv region: Bucha, Irpin, and Borodyanka. Those towns entirely destroyed by the Russians. Towns, whose inhabitants were raped, starved to death, and left to die under the ruins of destroyed houses. Guterres was shocked by what he saw.
The UN website published the personal expressions of the UN secretary about Ukraine being liberated from Russian occupation. During a visit to Bucha, Guterres visited the Church of St. Andrew — it is there that 1 of the 2 mass graves with murdered Ukrainians is located.
"When we see this horrendous site, it makes me feel how important it is [to have] a thorough investigation and accountability. I am glad that International Criminal Court is seized of the situation and that the prosecutor's office was already here. I fully support the International Criminal Court, and I appeal to the Russian Federation to accept to cooperate with the International Criminal Court. But when we talk about war crimes, we cannot forget that the worst of crimes is war itself. Thank you very much."
Borodyanka. Completely destroyed the city. The Russians dropped rockets on residential buildings, and the Ukrainians, who were not pulled out of the rubble, died painfully and for a long time from wounds, hunger, and lack of oxygen.
“When I see those destroyed buildings, I must say what I feel. I imagined my family in one of those houses that is now destroyed and black. I see my granddaughters running away in panic, part of the family eventually killed. So, the war is an absurdity in the 21st century. The war is evil. And when one sees these situations our heart, of course, stays with the victims. Our condolences to theirs, but our emotions are that there is no way a war families can be acceptable in the 21st century. Look at that.”
Irpin. A previously prosperous town in the Kyiv region was robbed, destroyed, and its inhabitants were raped and killed.
“This horrific scenario demonstrates something that is, unfortunately, always true: civilians always pay the highest price. Innocent civilians were living in these buildings. They were paying the highest price for a war for which they had not contributed at all. And this is something everybody should remember, everywhere in the world. Wherever there is a war, the highest price is paid by civilians.”
At the end of his visit, António Guterres said Osnat Lubrani, the UN in Ukraine resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator, will go to Zaporizhia to organize a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol. The destruction of the city did not stop even for an hour, and civilians are dying of starvation and airstrikes, unable to evacuate.
We remind you that earlier, António Guterres confirmed that the war, if it is not stopped in time, will cause world hunger.
“How many more people will have to die in Ukraine, and how many people worldwide will have to face hunger for this to stop? Continuing the war in Ukraine is morally unacceptable, politically indefensible and militarily nonsensical.”
