Once again, on Wednesday, the Russian delegation blocked a meeting of one of the permanent directive bodies of the OSCE, the Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC).
"Russia is demonstrating destructive approaches towards the OSCE and consistently and purposefully undermining this international organization. The Russian delegation once again blocked the holding of the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation on Wednesday. Currently, Russia is the only country in the organization resorting to such actions," the mission stated.
It was pointed out that the reason for such actions by the Russians is obvious – "total support for Ukraine on the OSCE platform, both from participating states and from the executive bodies, as well as Russia's inability to change the existing state of affairs."
Despite the actions of the Russian delegation, the Croatian chairmanship of the OSCE FSC still held an event in an alternative format on Wednesday – consultations.
"During these consultations, OSCE participating states strongly condemned Russian aggression and expressed readiness to support Ukraine as much as necessary," the Ukrainian mission reported.
The Forum for Security Cooperation and the Permanent Council are permanent directive bodies of the OSCE that meet in Vienna on a weekly basis with the participation of delegations from all participating states. The Forum is authorized to discuss military-political matters within the Organization with the aim of strengthening military security and reducing conflict risks in Europe. The ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine has been one of the main items on the FSC agenda since 2014.
Chairmanship of the Forum rotates every four months. Currently, Croatia holds the chairmanship.
The Russian delegation has repeatedly used various procedural issues to block Forum meetings.