MOSCOW/KIEV, April 29 (Xinhua) -- While the international community is making diplomatic efforts in hopes of ending Russia-Ukraine hostilities, analysts fear that the United States and its Western allies could simply nullify all such attempts by repeatedly providing military assistance to Ukraine.
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres travelled to Russia and Ukraine this week to mainly explore how the UN could aid in evacuating civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol.
As part of international efforts to help solve the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Guterres' visit came at a time when fighting between the two countries has entered the third month and their peace talks have fallen into a stalemate.
DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Guterres in the Kremlin on Tuesday, when he told the UN chief that "despite the ongoing military operation, we still hope that we will be able to reach agreements on the diplomatic track."
Guterres said that the UN is willing, together with the International Committee of the Red Cross, to assess the situation at Mariupol's Azovstal plant in order to evacuate civilians from there.
After a meeting with Guterres on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters that his country was ready for urgent talks to evacuate people from Mariupol and hoped that the participation of the UN secretary-general in this mission would facilitate the evacuation efforts.
"We will continue to call for a complete ceasefire, as well as for immediate practical measures to save lives and minimize human suffering," Guterres stressed.
Commenting on Guterres' trip, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that Moscow positively assessed the UN's desire to play a constructive and unbiased role.
Along with many other countries, China has always supported and encouraged all diplomatic efforts that are conducive to the peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis and has proposed a six-point initiative on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
WORRISOME MILITARY AID
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday requested Congress to appropriate 33 billion U.S. dollars to help Ukraine defend itself from Russia's military operation, including 20.4 billion dollars in military and security assistance.
Just a week ago, Biden announced that the United States would provide Ukraine with an additional package of security assistance worth 800 million dollars, or the eighth batch of such aid since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out on Feb. 24.
"It is clear that the West is interested in prolonging the conflict as much as possible in order to inflict maximum damage on Russia," said Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow.
According to him, the West aims to deplete Russia's military resources, hurt its economy and weaken the country politically.
But Kyryl Molchanov, deputy director of the Ukrainian Institute of Politics, said that it is difficult to completely isolate Russia since it has a vast land with rich natural resources.
Meanwhile, massive military supplies from the West, including many portable smaller weapon systems, have raised public concern over a dangerous proliferation of arms across Europe.
In a recent article titled What happens to weapons sent to Ukraine? The U.S. doesn't really know, CNN reported that the United States has few ways to track its weaponry delivered to Ukraine. ■