On Thursday, December 5, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha took part in the 31-st OSCE Ministerial Council Meeting in Malta.

In his speech, the Foreign Minister informed about Ukraine’s daily struggle for existence in the face of russian aggression and recalled the 30th anniversary of the Budapest Memorandum, which became one of the reasons for the current reality.

Andrii Sybiha stressed out that since the Second World War, Europe has not seen such a scale of atrocities, murder of civilians, kidnapping of children, execution of prisoners of war, and other horrible crimes. But, moscow tries to justify all of this with the so-called “legitimate security concerns”.

“The right of the Ukrainian nation to exist as well as the Ukrainian choice of its own future are not russia’s ‘security concern’. In fact, russia itself is the biggest security concern for the world,” the Minister stated.

The Head of the MFA urged not to trust false russians statements in favor of the peace and stressed out that the kremlin representatives talk about negotiations only to divert attention from what they are really doing. Minister stated that, in reality, russia continues to expand the war.

“First, russia is terrorizing civilians with constant missile and drone attacks, by killing entire families in their homes. Second, it is trying to cause a nuclear catastrophe through systemic strikes on energy infrastructure, and occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Third, rf is involving weapons from Iran and the DPRK, as well as deploying North Korean troops. And fourth, the russians launched an intermediate range ballistic missile at Ukraine,” he noted.

The minister called on the allies to raise the cost of war for the aggressor and force moscow to accept a just peace based on the principle of “peace through strength”.

“The Budapest Memorandum has shown the price of agreements at the cost of Ukraine. There will be no compromises on our territorial integrity, sovereignty, or future security,” stated the Head of the MFA of Ukraine.

The minister also explained what russia means when it talks about “peace.”

“When russians talk about ‘peace’, they mean murdered Ukrainian civilians, mass graves and cities razed to the ground. Ukrainian children sent to russian families and given russian names. Filtration camps, kill lists, forced russification, and assimilation. We will never accept such a ‘peace’. Our peace plan is for russia to get out of Ukraine and leave us alone. Entirely in accordance with the Helsinki Final Act,” he noted.

The minister also noted that russia seeks to create a world of zones of influence, where the use of force dictates new rules and new borders. He stressed out that Ukraine will not agree to Yalta-2 or Minsk-3, as russia wants.

In this context, Andrii Sybiha called for the elimination of grey areas, because the kremlin is trying to turn them into zones of influence. He mentioned that this requires clear geopolitical certainty regarding Ukraine as part of the Euro-Atlantic community.

The Head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called russia’s participation in the OSCE a threat to Europe, taking into account its deepening cooperation with Iran and North Korea, interfering in Georgia, Moldova, the Western Balkans, and other states, and waging a hybrid war against Europe.

The Minister stressed out that the Peace Formula is the only path for the restoration of a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace, and called on the OSCE to play an active role in its implementation.

The Head of the MFA also stated that Ukraine expects the OSCE’s new heads of Institutions and Secretariat to show strong leadership in defending its principles, further isolating russia and using all existing OSCE tools to address and document the crimes committed by the kremlin regime.

The Ukrainian diplomat reminded about the captivity of three OSCE personnel members: Maksym Petrov, Vadym Golda and Dmytro Shabanov, and noted that as long as russia violates OSCE principles and commitments, this Organization should remain a platform for russia’s accountability.

“russia holds the OSCE hostage just as it holds these people hostage,” he noted.

Andrii Sybiha thanked to his Maltese colleague Ian Borg and his able team for successfully steering the work of the Organization throughout the year. He also wished a successful work to his Finnish colleague Elina Valtonen as Finland takes the helm of the Organization next year.