Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Tuesday said that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has not tried to get in touch with Russian president Vladimir Putin since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“No one has been in touch, neither through the Permanent Mission of Russia to the U.N., nor directly with the Foreign Ministry,” Ms Zakharova said.
Russia launched a war on Ukraine on February 24. However, according to the latest updates, The Russian offensive to seize eastern Ukraine and the “battle for Donbas” has begun, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said. According to the senior US defence department, Russia has 76 battalion tactical groups in the Donbas region of Ukraine and in the country’s southeast with 11 of those added over the last several days. No fewer than 1,000 civilians are reportedly hiding in underground shelters beneath the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, according to the city council. Most of the civilians are believed to be women with children and elderly people. About 40,000 civilians in the city have been forcibly moved to Russia or Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine, the mayor added. Meanwhile, seven people were killed in strikes in the western city of Lviv.