Ukrainian Foreign Minister to boycott OSCE meeting due to Russian representative
Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba will not take part in the OSCE meeting at the ministerial level in Skopje (North Macedonia), which will take place from November 29 to December 1. The reason is the participation of the Russian delegation, in particular, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, reports the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Oleh Nikolenko.
"The Ukrainian delegation will not participate in the OSCE ministerial meeting at the level of the Minister of Foreign Affairs," he states.
At the same time, Ukraine remains committed to the principles of the OSCE and is ready to continue working with partners in order to restore respect for the Helsinki Final Act, in particular on the basis of the implementation of the Peace Formula of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"Ukraine highly appreciates the efforts of North Macedonia as the presiding state in 2023 and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Bujar Osmani personally, who demonstrated high professionalism and unwavering commitment to protecting the principles and obligations of the OSCE. We are especially grateful to North Macedonia for prioritizing the issue of countering Russian aggression against Ukraine during his presidency," the spokesperson adds.
Russia is destroying the OSCE
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine emphasizes that Russia is consistently destroying the OSCE, once again emphasizing the thesis of the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, voiced at a press conference with the head of the OSCE, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia, Bujar Osmani, during his visit to Kyiv on October 16.
According to the ministry, Russia, resorting to blackmail and open threats, systematically blocked consensus on key issues, abusing this rule.
"The blocking of Estonia's candidacy for the chairmanship of the OSCE in 2024 also became arbitrary. In addition, Russia illegally detained three Ukrainians - representatives of the OSCE, who have been in prison for more than 500 days. Russia created an existential crisis in the OSCE and turned the organization into a hostage of its own whims and aggression," adds Nikolenko.
Under such conditions, the statement says, the presence of the Russian delegation at the ministerial meeting at the ministerial level for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia will only intensify the crisis into which Russia has driven the OSCE.
"We should work together to save the OSCE from Russia, and not send signals about the possibility of returning to the forms of cooperation that existed before February 2022, to the state that unleashed the largest armed aggression in Europe since the end of the Second World War and grossly violated all the principles of the Helsinki Final Act," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summarizes.
Appointment of the new chairman of the OSCE
Earlier, Russia and Belarus vetoed the approval of Estonia as the next chairman of the OSCE in 2024. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia said that in this way the Kremlin wants to stop the work of the OSCE. After that, the place of chairman was offered to Malta, probably guided by the neutrality of this country in supporting Ukraine in the war. But the Russian Federation blocked this candidacy as well.
