Only way to save OSCE is to reboot organisation without Russia – Ukraine’s Foreign Minister

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Ukraine is convinced that the attempts to save the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) with the help of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will bear no results.

Source: Dmytro Kuleba, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, in Brussels, responding to the questions of European Pravda

Details: Kuleba explained that Northern Macedonia’s consent for the participation of Lavrov in the Ministers’ meeting of the OSCE, as well as consent of many ministers for his trip to Skopje were dictated by their intention to overcome the crisis in the organisation.

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“There is a number of countries thinking they need to resort to this step in order to save the organisation from collapsing,” Kuleba explained, adding that Russia blackmailed the OSCE, threatening not to support the new leadership and block the appointments of the heads of the bodies of the OSCE in case the restrictions are not lifted from Lavrov. As a result, the meeting in North Macedonia will become the first one where Western leaders will sit at the same table with Lavrov.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry is convinced that this will not save the organisation from the crisis, which threatens its very existence.

“I think that if we really want to save the OSCE, then we must either reassemble the organisation or find a way to eliminate Russia [from it],” Kuleba explained.

Background: European Pravda reported that on 23 November, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry announced Kuleba’s refusal to participate in the OSCE meeting due to the organisers’ decision to invite Sergey Lavrov to the meeting. Later, foreign ministers of the Baltic countries joined  the boycott of the OSCE meeting.

Later it was revealed that several more ministers would boycott the OSCE meeting but had not announced it publicly.

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