Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania on Tuesday said their foreign ministers would boycott a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in North Macedonia this week because Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov intends to take part,
Reuters reports.
It would be the first time Lavrov takes part in a meeting of the OSCE since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, prompting sweeping Western sanctions.
The meeting of the 57-member OSCE is due to take place on Thursday and Friday in North Macedonia's capital, Skopje.
Russia's top diplomat has said he will join the meeting if Bulgaria, North Macedonia's eastern neighbour, opens its air space for him. Lavrov said some Western countries had requested meetings with him.
Bulgarian air space is closed to Russian aircraft as part of European Union sanctions imposed in response to Russia's war in Ukraine.
"The Ukrainian delegation will not participate in the OSCE ministerial meeting at the level of the minister of foreign affairs," Oleh Nikolenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian foreign ministry, wrote in a statement on Facebook.
Nikolenko said Russia had abused the rules of consensus in the organisation, resorted to "blackmail and open threats" and had also been holding three Ukrainian OSCE representatives in prison for 500 days.
