Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected a plan for the U.N. Secretary General to visit Kyiv due to Antonio Guterres's attendance at this week's BRICS summit in Russia.
Axar.az reports that a Ukrainian official said on Friday.
Guterres - who called for a "just peace" in Ukraine at the BRICS event and has repeatedly condemned the invasion - discussed a visit to Ukraine with Zelensky when they met in New York in September, Deputy U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq said.
Haq said that since then the U.N. and Ukraine have been trying to work out a "mutually convenient time" for a visit, but that nothing had been decided.
The Ukrainian official, who asked not to be named, said Zelensky had now rejected the visit because of the BRICS appearance, without going into further detail.
Zelensky condemned the decision to turn up. "Even though some of its officials may choose the temptations of Kazan over the substance of the U.N. Charter, the world remains structured in such a way that the rights of nations and the norms of international law will always matter," he said on Thursday.