OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid used early warning tools for conflicts over the situation around Ukraine. This happened for the third time in history.
This was announced today at a briefing by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmitry Kuleba.
“Yesterday we took another important diplomatic step. OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid used the early warning toolkit. This is only the third case in history of the practical application of OSCE tools,” Kuleba stressed.
According to the minister, in the previous two cases this mechanism was used:
• in 2012 due to the events in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone;
• in 2018 due to the capture by Russia of Ukrainian sailors in the Kerch Strait.
According to Kuleba, in practice, the application of the conflict prevention mechanism is that Helga Schmid addressed a special letter to the heads of delegations of the OSCE participating States. In it, Schmid warned of growing tension and the risk of an escalation of the situation around Ukraine.
“This is a step to diplomatically prevent further escalation. Helga Schmid… called for immediate, as well as full and effective use of the confidence-building and security-building mechanism to de-escalate the situation, as well as to refrain from actions that could aggravate the situation, Kuleba said.
As you know, last week, against the background of the concentration of Russian troops near the borders, Ukraine demanded explanations from the Russian Federation regarding military activities in the border areas. In response, Kiev gave Moscow 48 hours. However, Russia did not give an explanation.
Therefore, Ukraine convened a meeting of the OSCE participating countries to discuss the movement of Russian troops. The meeting was scheduled for February 15th.
According to Dmitry Kuleba, if Russia ignores the meeting, Ukraine can initiate holding on Friday, February 18, a joint meeting of the main OSCE bodies: a permanent council and a forum for security cooperation.
