A ceasefire in Ukraine is not on the horizon, but it may come in the coming weeks, depending on how the war continues and the ongoing negotiations, according to Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Co-ordinator Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.
“The trucks… are not on the horizon right now, but they can be done in a few weeks. “It may be a little more than that,” Griffiths told reporters at UN headquarters in New York on Monday.
Griffiths said he plans to travel to Turkey later this week to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to identify ways in which the UN can help support the peace and negotiation process between Ukraine and Russia. He added that he was “really impressed” by Turkey’s role in the conflict, calling the country an “important aspect” of the situation.
“We have to watch the talks very, very carefully, hence the trip to Turkey this week,” Griffiths said.
Griffiths also said he hoped Turkey could host a “humanitarian contact group” through which talks on humanitarian aid could be discussed. He said Ukrainian officials had already agreed to that and that he hoped Russian officials would do the same.
Griffiths added that Ukrainian officials had agreed to most of the UN proposals on humanitarian aid and ceasefires, but that Russia had not yet responded.
“Obviously we have not yet introduced humanitarian truces. “From the Russian side, I went into a lot of detail about it and they kept promising to contact me about the details of these proposals,” Griffiths said. “In Ukraine, it was a very welcome meeting with their leadership. “They agreed with most of the proposals we are making. We have not yet received the same response from the Russian Federation.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres instructed Griffiths on March 28 to meet with officials from both Ukraine and Russia on arrangements for a humanitarian truce in Ukraine.
Griffiths said he had recently met with the Ukrainian prime minister, two deputy prime ministers, the Ukrainian defense minister and the deputy foreign minister on the issue. He has previously said he met with Russian officials on April 4.
The purpose of the talks with both sides is to ensure that the authorities are aware of the United Nations’s expectations for humanitarian aid and to discuss ways in which the United Nations could improve its humanitarian alert system, Griffiths said.
Griffiths said Ukrainian officials had agreed on the idea of a joint humanitarian contact group and the idea of local ceasefires for humanitarian aid, but said the Russians “are not putting local ceasefires at the top of their agenda, not yet.”
“From a humanitarian point of view, we have to have a much more willing acceptance, especially from the Russian Federation, to allow convoys to enter and leave,” Griffiths said.
Asked if he believed Russia would implement, in good faith, a permanent ceasefire, Griffiths said he would continue to try to facilitate and mediate, despite the current lack of action on the part of Russia.
“Hope is the ombudsman’s currency,” Griffiths said. “In every war with which I have had to do anything, you always, always start from a base without hope because it seems so horrible, the horrors are so terrible; you keep doing it, because honestly, what is the alternative? He added that “I do not want to keep it [negotiations]that would be irresponsible. “
