This photograph shows a destroyed Russian MT-LB armoured personnel carrier burning in a field on the outskirts of Izyum in Kharkiv region on Wednesday — AFP UNITED NATIONS, Sept 15 (AFP/AP): The prospects for peace in Ukraine are "minimal" at present, the United Nations chief lamented Wednesday after a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he and Putin discussed efforts to overcome "obstacles" that remain related to Russia's food and fertilizer exports, but warned it would be "naive" to believe there has been sufficient progress towards a rapid end to the war in Ukraine.
"I have the feeling we are still far away from peace. I would be lying if I would say it could happen soon," Guterres told a press conference.
"I have no illusion; at the present moment the chances of a peace deal are minimal," he added, noting that even a ceasefire is "not in sight."
Despite his bleak assessment about the war that has raged since Russia invaded its neighbor in late February, Guterres stressed he was maintaining contact with both sides and expressed hope that "one day it will be possible to go to a higher level of discussion."
In the meantime talks continue on Russian exports.
Guterres said he spoke with Putin earlier Wednesday and that they discussed the exports initiative "and its extension and its possible expansion."
A two-part agreement-allowing both the flow of Ukraine's grain exports blocked by the war and Russia's food and fertilizer exports-was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July and is scheduled to last 120 days.
Ukrainian flag raised
in retaken city
Hand on heart, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy watched his country's flag rise Wednesday above the recaptured city of Izium, making a rare foray outside the capital that highlights Moscow's embarrassing retreat from a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Russian forces left the war-scarred city last week as Kyiv's soldiers pressed a stunning advance that has reclaimed large swaths of territory in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region.
As Zelenskyy looked on and sang the national anthem, the Ukrainian flag was raised in front of the burned-out city hall. After almost six months under Russian occupation, Izium was left largely devastated, with apartment buildings blackened by fire and pockmarked by artillery strikes.
A gaping hole and piles of rubble stood where one building had collapsed.
"The view is very shocking, but it is not shocking for me," Zelenskyy told journalists, "because we began to see the same pictures from Bucha, from the first de-occupied territories … the same destroyed buildings, killed people."
Bucha is a small city on Kyiv's outskirts from which Russian troops withdrew in March. In the aftermath, Ukrainian authorities discovered the bodies of hundreds of civilians dumped in streets, yards and mass graves. Many bore signs of torture.
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