UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is due to meet with the leaders of Ukraine and Turkey on Thursday for talks on what a UN spokesman called "the need for a political solution to the conflict," including discussion on the situation at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The meeting follows a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey last month that allowed a restart of grain exports from Ukraine after Russia invaded the country and blocked its seaports.
Briefing UN ambassadors recently, the Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, called the agreement "a bright light in the conflict," at the same time acknowledging slim prospects for peace.
Poland's ambassador to the UN, Krzysztof Szczerski, has offered a similar assessment, expressing concern about the lack of prospects for a shift toward a resumption of diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
Krzysztof Szczerski. Photo: Wojciech Kusiński/Polish Radio
"This war, unfortunately as it seems now, can only be won on the battleground," Szczerski told Radio Poland's Danuta Isler in New York.
He added: "Somehow, all the attempts so far to bring it to a stage where diplomacy can enter have been refused by the Russian aggressor. That's why the role of the UN here is limited, because the UN does not have military forces of its own. The role for the UN is now humanitarian aid, but in the long term the credibility of the UN system for me would be judged by bringing aggressors to justice."
Click on the audio player above to hear the interview.