In the era of change, when the usual world order is collapsing, it is important to make the right choice.
And what choice did UN Secretary General António Guterres make? He accepted the Kremlin's invitation and went to the BRICS summit in Russia. To a country that attacked Ukraine and threatens the world with nuclear weapons. To a country whose soldiers are committing murder and rape, shelling homes, hospitals, schools and critical infrastructure. To a country whose leadership ignores the force of law and imposes the rule of force. To a country whose president is accused of the war crime of kidnapping Ukrainian children.
Serhii Kyslytsia, Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the UN, claims that the UN rules adopted in 2013 do not allow UN officials to meet with persons against whom the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant, except to address “fundamental issues” affecting the organization's ability to carry out its mandate in the country concerned. According to the diplomat, by inviting Guterres to Kazan, Putin demonstrated his disdain for the ICC. For our part, we would add that Guterres, who accepted the invitation, demonstrated the same disdain for the Court.
The UN Secretary General's visit to Russia, which is waging an unjust and invasive war against Ukraine, was a blow to the UN's image and even more damaging to Guterres' reputation. He himself probably realized the negative consequences of his visit to Kazan. Otherwise, why did the UN Secretary General ask to “avoid publicity” before meeting with Putin at the BRICS summit in Kazan, as a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry told RIA Novosti, a Russian propagandistic media outlet?
Guterres himself wrote on social network X that during his meeting with Putin he reiterated his position that Russia's invasion of Ukraine violates the UN Charter and international law and called for the safety of navigation in the Black Sea. “You have to sometimes really talk to governments that violate human rights as well, shake hands with the devil if it will make peace on earth and people go free,” explained UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Russia Mariana Katsarova.
That is a lame excuse: the UN Secretary General does not look like the kind of person after a meeting with whom Putin will stop military operations and negotiate with Ukraine. But in the conditions of Putin's international isolation, Guterres' visit played into Moscow's hands and gave weight to the Kazan summit inside Russia and in the countries of the Global South: Russian propaganda squeezed as much as possible out of the TV picture of his presence at the summit. As Russian Telegram bloggers noted, “The most iconic photo from the event is the UN Secretary General shaking hands with Putin.”
Guterres' participation in the BRICS summit on the aggressor's territory is perceived as an action running contrary to the UN principles of maintaining peace and security and legitimizing the presence of Russia and Putin in the international arena. However, is this the first time that the current UN Secretary General is playing on Russia's side?
Ukraine remembers all too well Guterres' interest in the resumption of the grain deal, when he was ready to meet the Kremlin's demands In particular, the UN Secretary General offered to lift the financial sanctions imposed by the EU against the Russian Agricultural Bank by using a specially founded subsidiary of the Russian bank and connecting it to the SWIFT system. In effect, this and other Guterres proposals nullified a number of international sanctions against Russia. The UN Secretary General justified his aspiration to resume the grain deal by the intention to avoid a global food crisis.
Tasting a Russian korovay (bread offered to greet guests), shaking hands with a subservient bow to Putin, embracing Lukashenko... All this looks disgusting: for Ukraine, a victim of aggression, it is just an insulting spit in the face. But for our country the visit of the UN Secretary General to Kazan is unacceptable not only because Guterres shook hands with the man responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Ukrainians. Although Guterres has participated in the BRICS summit in Russia, he ignored the previously extended invitation to take part in the Peace Summit in Switzerland.
Such selectivity is a far cry from the realization of the policy of equal treatment on the of the UN Secretary General towards all participants of an armed conflict. It is a demonstration of contemptuous attitude to the victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a manifestation of sympathy for the aggressor country and a confirmation of the normalization of the war. As Kurt Volker, former US State Department Special Representative for Ukraine, noted, “such a blatant leaning toward only one side calls into question his credibility in resolving the Russian-Ukrainian war.”
Following the Kazan trip, a number of European politicians called on Guterres to resign. Judging by his previous actions, he will not think of taking such a step. Moreover, a number of institutions in the West justify the UN Secretary General's act. For example, Peter Stano, a representative of the European Union's foreign policy service, said that the EU believes that Guterres' visit to the BRICS summit will help strengthen the international community's efforts to stop the Russian invasion.
Ukraine should not stand idly by in this situation. Otherwise, Guterres' act will go unpunished, which will only provoke him to continue playing on the side of the aggressor country. Otherwise, Ukraine's position will be ignored in the future. Therefore, Kyiv did the right thing when it denied the UN Secretary General a visit to Ukraine because of his participation in the BRICS summit. (Although the UN Secretary General's office claims that Guterres' visit has not been canceled and that they are trying to organize it “at a mutually convenient time.”)
Now Kyiv must take the next step and, following in Tel Aviv’s footsteps, declare Guterres persona non grata.
Let me remind you that in early October, Israeli authorities banned António Guterres from entering the country because of his statements after Iran's massive rocket attack on Israeli territory, accusing him of anti-Israeli policy and support for terrorists, hypocrisy and callousness. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the UN Secretary General “still has not condemned the massacre and sex crimes committed by Hamas murderers on October 7” and that he “will be remembered as a stain in the history of the UN.”
The sympathies of the former secretary general of the Socialist Party of Portugal and ex-chairman of the Socialist International Guterres in Israeli confrontation with Hamas are obvious. He recently offered veiled condolences for the death of Mohammed Abu-Atawi, a commander of the Hamas-affiliated Nukhba unit and an employee of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). According to Katz, Abu-Atawi orchestrated the massacre at a bomb shelter near Reim.
According to Israeli intelligence, the Agency itself has collaborated with Palestinian radical groups, and at least 12 of its employees were involved in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, when more than 1,200 Israelis were killed and some 250 were taken hostage. Not surprisingly, Tel Aviv recently banned UNRWA from operating in Israel and the territories under its control.
Declaring António Guterres persona non grata is a rather drastic measure. But it would be an effective, not symbolic, expression of protest against the policy of appeasement of the aggressor and the UN Secretary General's support for the legitimacy of the Russian authorities.