UN chief says 'spare no effort' to end war in Ukraine

By Olivia Le Poidevin and Emma Farge

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday that countries must work to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, calling for a just and lasting peace on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"We must spare no effort to bring an end to this conflict, and achieve a just and lasting peace in line with the U.N. Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions," he told a high-level meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, repeating that Russia's actions in February 2022 violated the global body's founding document, the U.N. charter.

His remarks come ahead of a U.N. showdown on Ukraine later on Monday in New York, with the United States urging states to back its resolution which it says is focused on ending the war and pits it against a rival text by Ukraine and European allies.

That motion repeats the U.N. demand that Russia withdraw its troops and halt hostilities, which has received overwhelming support in the past.

The U.N. split illustrates the position Ukraine finds itself in as it enters the fourth year of all-out war with Russia, with the backing of its staunchest ally the United States fraying amid growing pressure from Washington for a deal to end the war.

In an address to the same meeting, U.N. rights chief Volker Turk said that any sustainable peace "must be anchored in the rights, needs and aspirations of the Ukrainian people, in accountability, and in the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law."

Washington left its seat at the Human Rights Council empty, in line with U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to disengage from the body which is the only intergovernmental organisation that protects human rights.

Russia, which says it had no choice but to launch what it calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine due to the NATO alliance's eastwards expansion, will address the meeting on Wednesday.

In the same speech, Guterres said that human rights around the world are being "suffocated" and referred to intolerable levels of death and destruction in Gaza as well as horrifying human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Turk, an Austrian lawyer, warned that the system of global protections built in the decades after World War Two has never before been under so much strain.