What happened on 26 April 2022 as Guterres went to Moscow
A look back at a day of diplomacy, warnings from Moscow and a security meeting in Moldova during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
What did diplomacy look like in the third month of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? On 26 April 2022, it involved a UN visit to Moscow, a sharp warning from Russia's foreign minister and an emergency meeting in neighbouring Moldova.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres travelled to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. Before the meeting, Guterres called for a ceasefire to end the war.
The same day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that weapons supplied to Ukraine would be a legitimate target for Russia's military. He added that storage facilities in western Ukraine had been targeted. Lavrov also said that NATO, in essence, was engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and was arming that proxy, and that war meant war.
The warning came two days after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Ukraine and met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It was the highest-level American visit to Kyiv since the start of the invasion, and Zelenskyy was informed of newly approved military assistance for Ukraine.
Moldova on alert
In Moldova, the Supreme Security Council convened an emergency meeting after attacks the previous day in the breakaway region of Transnistria. President Maia Sandu said the attacks were aimed at destabilising the situation in the region. She also said the military would improve its combat readiness and increase patrols on the border with Transnistria.
