On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was under Western pressure over the situation in Ukraine because he was making statements that did not correspond to his UN Charter status and power.

Guterres warned on Tuesday that Russia's recognition of the people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk constituted a violation of the Minsk Agreements and a "death blow" to them.

Lavrov told UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen in Moscow that "To our greatest regret, the UN secretary-general, whom you represent, has been subject to pressure from the West and has recently made several statements about what is happening in eastern Ukraine that is not corresponding to his status and his authority under the UN Charter,"

The secretary general, according to Lavrov, never mentioned the situation in Ukraine or the fulfillment of the Minsk agreements.

In each crisis, including the Ukrainian one, the UN secretariat should strive for neutrality, according to the Russian minister.

Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Vasily Nebenzya, has already briefed Guterres on Moscow's evaluation of his words, according to Lavrov.

The Russian FM also requested that Pedersen personally deliver the Russian assessment to the UN secretary general.