United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres is set to meet both the Russian and Ukrainian leaders next week.
On Tuesday, Guterres is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and have a working meeting and lunch with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.
His shuttle diplomacy will then take him to Kyiv on Thursday to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
The UN chief has been pressured recently to take a more active role in mediating the conflict.
In letters to both leaders via their UN missions, he called for discussions of “urgent steps to bring about peace in Ukraine and the future of multilateralism”.
Both Russia and Ukraine are founding members of the UN.