United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Turkey on Monday, which plays an important role in mediating a solution to the conflict in Ukraine, the international organization said in a statement, before heading to Moscow and Kiev.
And the United Nations said in its statement issued at dawn today, Sunday, that "the Secretary-General will go to Ankara in Turkey, where he will be received by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan."
Guterres is then scheduled to travel to Moscow on Tuesday and then to Kyiv to try to negotiate an end to Russia's war on Ukraine.
Turkey is trying to mediate an end to the conflict in Ukraine, and has hosted meetings between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul and another meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Antalya.
Ankara is currently seeking to organize a summit in Istanbul between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, although Turkey acknowledges that the possibility of similar talks is still low.
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For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday criticized Guterres' "illogical" decision to visit Moscow on Tuesday before coming to Kyiv.
"It is a mistake to go to Russia first and then to Ukraine," Zelensky said, at a press conference, at a metro station in Kyiv's Central Square, expressing regret for "the complete lack of justice and logic in this arrangement."
He added, "The war is in Ukraine; there are no corpses in the streets of Moscow. It would be logical for him to go first to Ukraine to see the people there and the repercussions of the occupation," as he put it.
Guterres is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and Zelensky on Thursday. The Secretary-General also plans to meet with UN staff to discuss increasing aid to Ukrainians.
Since Guterres accused Russia of violating the UN Charter by sending troops to Ukraine, the Russian president has refused to communicate with him.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations had only one phone conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky on February 26, two days after the start of the Russian offensive.
Last Tuesday, Antonio Guterres again condemned the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine, and called on both sides to stop the fighting and observe a four-day humanitarian truce on the occasion of the Orthodox Easter, which falls on Sunday.