UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy next week as he steps up efforts to end the ongoing war in Ukraine. Guterres will visit Moscow, where on April 26 he will have a working meeting and lunch with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and will be received by President Vladimir Putin. The visit comes two months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Next week, I will meet with President Vladimir Putin in Russia and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ukraine. We need urgent steps to save lives, end the human suffering and bring about peace in Ukraine,” Guterres tweeted. Following his visit to Russia, Guterres will also travel to Ukraine next week.

He will have a working meeting with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and will be received by Zelenskyy on April 28, the UN Spokesperson’s Office said Friday. Guterres will also meet with staff of UN agencies to discuss the scaling up of humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine. Earlier this week, Guterres had written to Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to receive him in Moscow and Kyiv “to discuss urgent steps to bring about peace in Ukraine.” Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, told that two separate letters were handed over to the Permanent Missions of the Russian Federation and Ukraine. “In these letters, the Secretary-General asked President Vladimir Putin to receive him in Moscow and President Zelenskyy to receive him in Kyiv. The Secretary-General said, at this time of great peril and consequence, he would like to discuss urgent steps to bring about peace in Ukraine and the future of multilateralism based on the Charter of the United Nations and international law,” Dujarric said.