UN chief to meet Putin, Zelenskiy next week

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Moscow next week to meet Russia's President Vladimir Putin and then head to Ukraine for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Guterres will head to Moscow on Tuesday and meet Putin as well as having a working meeting and lunch with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Eri Kaneko, Guterres' associate spokesperson, told a news briefing in New York on Friday.

"He hopes to talk about what can be done to bring peace to Ukraine urgently," Kaneko said.

He will meet with Zelenskiy on Thursday, foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and staff at UN agencies to discuss the scaling up of humanitarian assistance efforts, the UN spokesperson’s office said in a statement.

Guterres had asked to meet the leaders of both nations in separate letters handed to their countries' permanent missions to the United Nations.

Guterres on Tuesday called for a four-day Orthodox Easter humanitarian pause in fighting in Ukraine beginning on Thursday to allow for the safe passage of civilians from areas of conflict and the delivery of humanitarian aid to hard-hit areas.