The UN secretary made this statement after the failure of the Security Council to condemn Russia, one of the five permanent members of the same together with China, the United States, the United Kingdom and France, which exercised its right to veto. China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstained.
The clashes on the second day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he recalled, have caused the exodus of 100,000 people, many to neighboring countries, underlining the “regional nature of the growing crisis”.
Guterres appointed Amin Awad as UN coordinator for the Ukraine crisis on Friday, after unlocking $24 million for emergency humanitarian aid the day before.
Russian forces’ advance into Ukraine met stiff resistance in the capital Kiev on Friday, where President Volodymyr Zelensky defied calls by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to overthrow him.