"Today, I am calling for a four-day Holy Week humanitarian pause beginning on Holy Thursday and running through Easter Sunday, April 24th to allow for the opening of a series of humanitarian corridors," Guterres told reporters standing in front of the "Knotted Gun," or "Non Violence," an iconic sculpture of a large gun, the barrel of which is tied in a knot. The sculpture is the first thing that many visitors to UN headquarters in New York see as they enter the compound and symbolizes the world body's commitment to world peace.
Due to the intensifying Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine as Easter approaches, the UN chief said a humanitarian pause is all the more important.
Guterres said the United Nations was submitting detailed plans to the parties and was ready to send humanitarian aid convoys to Mariupol, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk beginning on Holy Thursday and running through Sunday, the date of Orthodox Easter, which is celebrated by most Ukrainians and Russians.
"Humanitarian needs are dire. People do not have food, water, supplies to treat the sick or wounded or simply to live day-to-day," Guterres told reporters at the United Nations in New York.
The top UN official said that more than 4 million people in those areas need assistance.
"The four-day Easter period should be a moment to unite around saving lives and furthering dialogue to end the suffering in Ukraine," Guterres said.
A day earlier, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths suggested that the time might be right for a ceasefire as the Orthodox Easter holiday approaches.
