"This is disgraceful. There are people in international organisations, but not only in political organisations, and there are political leaders who think that they can somehow talk to everyone here and there. It would not be very surprising if Mr Guterres uses this reasoning, and I think he is. Remembering that he did not find time to attend a peace summit in Switzerland initiated by Ukraine, attempts to act as if some talks are held with one side, in my understanding, seem peculiar," Šimonytė told reporters Friday.
"The United Nations is after all the organisation of all countries of the world. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted numerous resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And such behaviour [of the UN secretary general] is incomprehensible and disgraceful to say the least," stressed the prime minister.
Meanwhile, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told ELTA that the UN secretary general could no longer be regarded as an honest intermediary.
"Guterres must admit to have erred and assume responsibility both for not travelling to Ukraine’s peace summit in Switzerland and for travelling to meet wanted war criminal Putin, and hugging both him and his accomplice Lukashenko," stated Landsbergis.
According to the head of Lithuania’s diplomacy, if the United Nations secretary general decided to step down, he would not try to talk him out of it.
On Wednesday, Guterres visited Kazan, Russia, to attend the BRICS summit. He met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time since April 2022, weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. Meetings with Putin and Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko drew criticism as Guterres did not attend the Ukraine peace summit held in Switzerland and sent a pre-recorded video message to the international conference for Lebanon.