Taking civilian hostages is unprecedented Russian crime. Russia’s terrorist partners have started to repeat it, - Kuleba
This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba during a joint press conference with the current OSCE chairman, Foreign Minister of North Macedonia, Buyar Osmani, in Kyiv on Monday, Censor.NET reports citing Ukrinform.
"I also drew attention to the problem of Russia's seizure of civilian hostages. This Russian crime is unprecedented in scale in modern history. We can already see how Russia's terrorist partners in the world have begun to repeat it. Russia must be held accountable for the practice of mass civilian captivity if we do not want it to become an instrument of terror around the world," he said.
According to Kuleba, the OSCE has the capabilities and "institutional capacity to draw attention to this issue and propose solutions".
According to him, Ukraine also expects that the North Macedonian Chairmanship, together with the OSCE Secretariat, "will continue efforts to release the three OSCE SMM staff members who have been illegally detained by Russia for more than 500 days".
"I trust that the OSCE will continue to play an important role in documenting Russian crimes and, in the long run, in bringing Russia to justice. I am convinced that the OSCE also has the potential to actively participate in the implementation of President Zelensky's Peace Formula," the Ukrainian minister said.
He expressed his gratitude to Buyar Osmani for the fact that the OSCE promptly supported Ukraine's call and responded to the problem of Russia's deportation of Ukrainian children.
"The relevant report within the OSCE has already been prepared, it has become an important roadmap for further action. And today I called on the organisation to immediately develop specific projects based on this report so that we can have joint powerful tools to counter this crime," Kuleba said.
