Ukrainian Ambassador reveals details of convincing some OSCE members to boycott Russian Foreign Minister

Yevhen Tsymbaliuk, Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has stated that his speech at the ministerial meeting in North Macedonia affected some delegates' decision to boycott Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Source: European Pravda in the article Not Just the OSCE: Ukraine's Three Diplomatic Victories Over Russia in a Week Details: The author of the story, European Pravda editor Serhii Sydorenko, pointed out that for the first time, ministers from about half of the OSCE member states boycotted the ministerial meeting, "and it happened purely because they did not want to be at the same table as Lavrov".

Some of them were likely persuaded by the Ukrainian ambassador, who was given the floor during a ceremonial dinner on the eve of the conference.

"The core of my explanation stood in the fact that the story of how the OSCE could unite even those who were not like-minded during the Cold War ceases to work during a hot war. In the current situation, dialogue with criminals should be limited, not supported," explained Tsymbaliuk. The diplomat said he thought this explanation was "absolutely obvious", but as it turned out, for many in Europe, it was not.

"During the dinner, 15 state representatives approached me asking for a copy of my speech to analyse these arguments. I had to write this text urgently to send it to them, as I was speaking off the top of my head," he said. The day before, European Pravda reported that the meeting of the OSCE in the North Macedonian capital, Skopje, had been ignored by 13 of the 31 NATO ministers due to Sergei Lavrov's participation.

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