UN deputy secretary-general responds to criticism over Ukraine conflict, says there'll be lessons learned

cnbc.com:

The United Nations deputy secretary-general has told CNBC there will be «lessons learned» from the war in Ukraine.

Speaking Wednesday after the release of the U.N's "2022 Financing for Sustainable Development Report," Amina Mohammed said the Russia-Ukraine crisis had been «a big shock to the system.»

Asked if the world could have done more to stop the war before it began, Mohammed said «hindsight is 20-20 vision.»

«Of course, there are things that we could have done to stop the war, but perhaps those are going to be lessons learned again, when the Security Council, the General Assembly leaders will look back and say, 'what could we have done, and make sure that we prevent the next war, the next pandemic'. These are all things that we are learning. I think history tells us that we're not very good learners when it comes to that,» she said.

«I think that this was so unimaginable, unexpected, that we'd have this kind of a war in Europe, you know, 75 years later, I think has been a big shock to the system. So, I hope that the learnings will find ways to make us more accountable to put in the checks and balances that this doesn't ever happen again, and that we are working towards peace.»

Mohammed, who previously served as Nigeria's minister of environment, also chairs the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance, set up by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to look at the wider impact of the Ukraine war on the «world's most vulnerable.»

Guterres traveled to Moscow this week to meet with President Vladimir Putin for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine. He also met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday in Kyiv. Russian is one of five nations that hold a veto power on the U.N's