Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the U.N. chief is doing things in the wrong order on his tour of Russia and Ukraine this week.
U.N. Secretary General António Guterres is set to be in Turkey on Monday, before flying to Moscow on Tuesday and to Ukraine two days later.
There is “no justice and no logic in this order,” Zelensky said, according to Agence France-Presse. “The war is in Ukraine; there are no bodies in the streets of Moscow. It would be logical to go first to Ukraine, to see the people there, the consequences of the occupation.”
Guterres is to hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday and has meetings lined up with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday, his spokesperson said.
The U.N. chief’s visit to Kyiv is scheduled for Thursday, when he will meet Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. Guterres will also meet U.N. staff in Kyiv to discuss the humanitarian effort to help Ukrainians displaced by the conflict.