Ukraine boycotts OSCE meeting as Russia joins for first time since start of full-scale war

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will not attend the upcoming OSCE ministerial meeting in Skopje, North Macedonia, on November 30 and December 1 due to the presence of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Oleh Nikolenko, reported this.

According to him, Russia is "consistently destroying" the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, "resorting to blackmail and open threats."

In addition, says Nikolenko, the Russian Federation is illegally detaining three representatives of the OSCE, who are citizens of Ukraine and have been in prison for more than 500 days.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson claims that the Russian delegation's presence at the meeting in Skopje "will only intensify the crisis into which Russia has driven the OSCE."

That's why the Ukrainian delegation has decided to boycott the ministerial-level meeting, which means that Dmytro Kuleba won't be present.

Subsequently, the foreign ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia published a joint statement declaring they would not participate in the meeting either.

"My vision: Lavrov's place in the special tribunal, not in the OSCE," said the head of the Estonian Foreign Ministry, Margus Tsahkna.

For reference:

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which until 1995 was called the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), is the world's largest regional intergovernmental security organization.

It has observer status at the UN. It unites 57 participating countries from Europe, Asia, and North America.

It should be noted that Ukraine has already announced a boycott of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly due to the participation of the Russian delegation in Vienna on February 23-24.

As reported, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly recognized the Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terrorism and Wagner Private Military Company as a terrorist organization.

It was also reported that on October 16, the head of the OSCE, Bujar Osmani, arrived in Kyiv for a visit. He held negotiations with the Ukrainian authorities.