UN chief tours ravaged Ukraine towns, decries ‘absurdity of war’

Kyiv, April 28

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has toured areas outside Kyiv that suffered damage during the Russian advance there.

Guterres urged Russia to cooperate with the International Criminal Court. That's after the bodies of civilians were found in areas once held by Russian forces, some shot with their hands bound. Guterres also said “civilians always pay the highest price” in any war.

“When I see those destroyed buildings, I imagine my family in one of those houses now destroyed and black. I see my granddaughters running away in panic, part of the family eventually killed,” he said.

“So, the war is an absurdity in the 21st century. The war is evil. When we talk about war crimes, we cannot forget that the worst of crimes is war itself,” he said. Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that Finland and Sweden would be embraced with open arms should they decide to join the 30-nation military organisation and could join quite quickly. — AP

‘Pumping Ukraine with arms threat to europe’

London: The Kremlin said on Thursday that Western arms supplies to Ukraine, including heavy weapons, posed a threat to the security of Europe. The comment from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added to a pattern of escalating rhetoric on both sides. Reuters

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