Ukraine Russia Conflict: "This war will not last forever" says UN’s secretary-general, António Guterres

The UN’s secretary-general, António Guterres, said the time would come when there will be peace talks over Ukraine. Speaking at a news conference with Austria’s president, Alexander Van der Bellen, Guterres said: "This war will not last forever. There will be a time when peace negotiations will take place."

"I do not see that in the immediate future. But I can say one thing. We will never give up" he added. 

Meanwhile, Russia on 24th February launched its invasion of Ukraine. And, according to the latest updates, Ukrainian forces have retaken villages in the Kharkiv region, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in his nightly address. The number of civilians killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the war is “thousands higher” than official figures, the head of the UN’s human rights monitoring mission in the country said. At least 100 civilians remained in the Azovstal steelworks under heavy Russian fire in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, an aide to the city’s mayor said.

However, Belarus has said it will deploy special operations troops in three areas near its southern border with Ukraine. The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, said Moscow had agreed to help Minsk produce missiles and warned Belarus could “inflict unacceptable damage on the enemy”.