New Delhi: In an effort to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday that he was in "close contact" with India and various other nations on "mediation efforts" to stop the conflict in Ukraine.


While raising his concern that "Ukraine" is ablaze and the nation is being "wrecked" before the eyes of the world, Guterres asserted that the time has come to stop the horror unleashed on the people of Ukraine and get on the way of diplomacy and harmony.


“I have been in close contact with a number of countries — including China, France, Germany, India, Israel and Turkey – on mediation efforts to bring an end to this war,” Guterres told reporters here.


“The appeals for peace must be heard. This tragedy must stop. It is never too late for diplomacy and dialogue. We need an immediate cessation of hostilities and serious negotiations based on the principles of the UN Charter and international law,” he said.


Guterres said incalculable innocent individuals - including women and kids - have been killed.


“After being hit by Russian forces, roads, airports and schools lie in ruins. According to the WHO, at least 24 health facilities have suffered the attack,” he said.


Meanwhile, the fourth round of talks between Russia and Ukraine that started on Monday has been paused. Tomorrow again the delegation of both the countries will sit together through video conferencing.


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was ready to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Israel. However, he said that these talks can take place only after the declaration of ceasefire, as quoted by news agency The Kyiv Independent.


“Raising the alert level of Russian nuclear forces is a bone-chilling development. The prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, is now back within the realm of possibility. The security and safety of nuclear facilities must also be preserved,” he said. 


As a large number of individuals in Ukraine face appetite and waning supplies of water and medication and no less than 1.9 million individuals are dislodged inside the country, Guterres warned that there is another dimension to the conflict that gets obscured.


“This war goes far beyond Ukraine. It is also an assault on the world’s most vulnerable people and countries," he said.


"While war rains over Ukraine, a sword of Damocles hangs over the global economy – especially the developing world. Even before the conflict, developing countries were struggling to recover from the pandemic – with record inflation, rising interest rates and looming debt burdens,” he said.


The UN chief emphasised that capacity of the emerging nations to answer has been deleted by dramatic expansions in the expense of financing.


“Now their breadbasket is being bombed,” he said.


Featuring the financial effect of the continuous struggle, Guterres noticed that Russia and Ukraine address the greater part of the world's inventory of sunflower oil and around 30% of the world's wheat.


Ukraine alone gives the greater part of the World Food Program's wheat supply.


The UN boss said that the conflict likewise shows how the worldwide dependence on fossil fuels is putting energy security, environmental activity, and the whole worldwide economy helpless before international affairs.


"Food, fuel and fertilizer prices are skyrocketing. Supply chains are being disrupted. And the costs and delays of transportation of imported goods – when available – are at record levels,” he said, adding that all of this is hitting the most unfortunate the hardest and sowing the seeds for political instability and turmoil all over the planet.


A sum of 45 African and least developed nations import somewhere around 33% of their wheat from Ukraine or Russia, he said, adding that 18 of those nations import at least 50%.


This incorporates nations like Burkina Faso, Egypt, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.


With grain costs having as of now surpassed those toward the beginning of the Arab Spring and the food mobs of 2007-2008 and the FAO's worldwide food costs file at its most significant level ever, Guterres said: “We must do everything possible to avert a hurricane of hunger and a meltdown of the global food system.” Guterres voiced worry that developing countries are getting “pummeled” in the midst of the conflict and they face a course of emergencies - past the Ukraine war.


(With PTI inputs)