OSCE Chairman-in-Office Buyar Osmani noted that Ukraine’s security is a priority of his presidency.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed with the current head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia Buyar Osmani, the need to increase the OSCE’s attention to human rights violations in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

This is reported on the president’s website. The head of state congratulated North Macedonia on the beginning of its chairmanship in the OSCE and emphasized the importance of the minister’s first foreign visit to Ukraine as the current head of the organization.

“This is very important for us. We are grateful to the OSCE for consistently supporting our country, starting from the time of the temporary occupation of some parts of our territory in 2014. Today, supporting the Organization’s mission is more important than ever,” the president said.

He expressed hope that during the Macedonian presidency, the OSCE will use all possible means to exert pressure on the aggressor, primarily with the aim of ending human rights violations in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

“We need to increase the OSCE’s attention to two key problems: the forced deportation of women and children to the territory of the Russian Federation and the conditions of detention of Ukrainian prisoners of war. These are very important things for us,” Zelenskyy stressed.

The President of Ukraine paid special attention to the importance of implementing the Ukrainian peace formula and invited the Macedonian presidency to participate in this process. “We want the world order to be restored and stability to be returned to our region. I expect the involvement of the OSCE and North Macedonia in the implementation of the peace formula,” he said.

Zelenskyi separately thanked the government and people of North Macedonia for the humanitarian and defense support of our country since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion.

For his part, the current chairman of the OSCE emphasized solidarity with Ukraine and its people and noted that the security of our country is a priority of his presidency.

As the Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia, Osmani assured that his country would support Ukraine until victory over the aggressor.

Chairmanship of North Macedonia in the OSCE

As reported, on January 1, North Macedonia took over the chairmanship of the OSCE from Poland. Ending Russia’s war against Ukraine is a top priority for this country during its presidency throughout 2023.

On January 12, Osmani avoided answering the question of whether it is possible to stop the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine without changing the regime of President Vladimir Putin. At the same time, he called on Russia to withdraw all its troops from the territory of Ukraine.

Osmani arrived in Kyiv on January 16. Before his visit to Ukraine, he strongly condemned the Russian missile attacks on the city of Dnipro.

Earlier, OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid opposed the exclusion of the Russian Federation from the organization. She justified this position by the need to preserve “communication channels”. She also noted that, unlike the Council of Europe, the OSCE allegedly does not have a membership suspension mechanism through which Russia could be excluded.

Recently, at a meeting of the ombudsmen of Ukraine and Russia, Dmytro Lubynets and Tetyana Moskalkova in Turkey, the intention to open a humanitarian corridor between the countries for the release of Ukrainians held by the aggressor country was declared. The idea of ​​creating such a corridor was supported by the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.