United Nations

"We are in talks with India on procurement of wheat a that is something that is ongoing," he said on Wednesday during a news conference here to release the 2022 Global Report on Food Crises. The report gave a bleak picture of the global food situation warning that about 193 million people in 53 countries or territories are facing an acute problem and need urgent assistance.

"As for the Ukrainian servicemen and militants of the nationalist battalions blocked on the territory of the Azovstal plant, the Kyiv authorities should take political responsibility and, guided by humane considerations, order them to lay down their arms. Prisoners of war are guaranteed life, medical care and treatment in accordance with international legal standards," said the Kremlin.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held a tete-a-tete in Moscow with Putin, said Stephane Dujarric, Guterres' spokesman, in a release of the meeting, on Tuesday. Guterres reiterated the position of the UN on Ukraine, and they discussed the proposals for humanitarian assistance and evacuation of civilians in relation to the situation in Mariupol, said the release.

With action on the invasion of Ukraine held hostage by Russian vetoes at the Council, the UN General Assembly on Tuesday adopted the resolution that would require it to meet within 10 days after a veto has been cast in the Council to debate the veto and give the vetoers a chance to speak to it.

In a brief note to correspondents on Saturday evening, the UN chief's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that Guterres will be "received" by Erdogan in Ankara. Turkey has been the hub of diplomacy for Russia and Ukraine and consulting with Erdogan could help Guterres prepare for his meetings with Putin on Tuesday and with Zelensky on Thursday

Russia announced immediately after Thursday's vote that it was voluntarily withdrawing from the 47-member Council. "If India has chosen any side, it is the side of peace and it is for an immediate end to violence," Permanent Representative T.S. Tirumurti said. India was abstaining "for reasons of both substance and process", he said.

A Security Council resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, Britain, France or the US to be adopted. Russia's draft resolution expresses grave concern about reports of civilian casualties and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in and around Ukraine, including the growing number of internally displaced persons and refugees.

Moscow launched a military campaign against Ukraine late last month. "We're convinced that putting [the terms] before the public at this moment can only undermine the negotiations that are already going a lot slower and are less substantial than we want them to be," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, RT reported.

On March 18, it was reported that Russia cancelled the vote on a resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine in the UN Security Council. Earlier, Russia had cancelled the vote on the resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine in the UN Security Council. This was stated by the Russian Permanent Representative to the organisation, Vasily Nebenzya.

With the planet warming by as much as 1.2 degrees, and where climate disasters have forced 30 million to flee their homes, Guterres on Monday warned: "We are sleepwalking to climate catastrophe", Xinhua news agency reported. The goal to limit future warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, highlighted in the Paris Agreement on climate change, and driven home in last November's COP26, gathering in Glasgow, is now on "life support" and "in intensive care," the UN chief told the Economist Sustainability Summit.