The Ukrainian Foreign Minister left the OSCE Ministerial Council during Lavrov's speech

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga defiantly left the plenary session hall of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Malta when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov started his speech at the forum. The Ukrainian news and analysis website Strana.ua published the corresponding footage on December 5.

According to the media outlet, before that, in his speech, the Ukrainian minister called his Russian counterpart a war criminal. Together with Sibiga, the foreign ministers of Poland and the Czech Republic also left the hall.

Lavrov, in turn, according to the portal, intends to skip the dinner, which will discuss the conflict in Ukraine.

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Lavrov arrived in Malta to participate in the OSCE Ministerial Council earlier in the day. He will meet with the foreign ministers of several countries on the platform. At the same time, the Russian side intends to draw special attention to the non-issuance of visas to Moscow's representatives.

Later, during his speech at the Ministerial Council Lavrov said that there were no spheres in which the OSCE could be useful in terms of its tasks. According to Lavrov, the organization could become a gathering point for the interests of members of the European space, but "it will not occur to anyone in this room to use the OSCE for these purposes."

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova will not attend the meeting; on December 3, it became known that her Maltese visa was canceled. The organizers attributed the decision to "circumstances beyond their control." The Foreign Ministry called it an unprecedented case, as the visa issued to the diplomat was canceled before the departure of the Russian delegation. Lavrov called the incident an insult to the country's functions as chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The Foreign Ministry reportedabout Russia's plans to participate in the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Malta in early October. In November, it was reported that Poland and its partners could not agree on their reaction to Lavrov's participation in the meeting.