INTERNATIONAL: U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, March 22, has urged an end to the "absurd war" started by Russia's invasion of Ukraine one month ago, warning that the conflict is "going nowhere, fast" and that the Ukrainian people are "enduring a living hell."

"Continuing the war in Ukraine is morally unacceptable, politically indefensible and militarily nonsensical," Guterres told reporters in New York.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres has said; "This war is unwinnable. Sooner or later, it will have to move from the battlefield to the peace table, and that is inevitable. The only question is: How many more lives must be lost? How many more bombs must fall? How many Mariupols must be destroyed? How many more Ukrainians and Russians will be killed before everyone realizes that this war has no winners , only losers? How many more people will have to die in Ukrain, how many people around the world will have to face hunger for this to stop? Continuing the war in Ukraine is morally unacceptable, politically indefensible and militarily nonsensical. What I said from this podium almost one month ago should be even more evident today. By any measure,by even the shrewdest calculation, it is time to stop the fighting now and give peace a chance. It is time to end this absurd war. Thank you."

Russia is pounding the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol into the "ashes of a dead land," its local council said on Tuesday, describing two more huge bombs that fell on the city that has been sealed off for weeks.

"Even if Mariupol falls, Ukraine cannot be conquered city by city, street by street, house by house," Guterres said. "This war is unwinnable. Sooner or later, it will have to move from the battlefield to the peace table."

"It is time to end this absurd war," he has said.

Russia has launched what it calls a "special military operation" on Feb. 24 to destroy Ukraine's military infrastructure. Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Moscow of attacking civilians indiscriminately. Moscow denies attacking civilians.

Guterres said some 10 million Ukranians have fled from their homes and warned the reverberations of war were being felt globally "with skyrocketing food, energy and fertilizer prices threatening to spiral into a global hunger crisis."

"There is enough on the table to cease hostilities now and seriously negotiate - now," Guterres has said.