On 17 June, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha participated in the opening session of the OSCE Annual Security Review Conference at the invitation of the Swiss Chairpersonship.
The Minister started his video address to the participants of the Conference by naming three Ukrainian citizens and former staff members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission who have been illegally held in Russian captivity since 2022: Maksym Petrov, Dmytro Shabanov, and Vadym Golda.
Andrii Sybiha expressed his gratitude to OSCE Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioğlu for his personal engagement and efforts aimed at securing the release of the detainees. At the same time, the Minister noted that the situation remains dire: "A security organization that cannot ensure the security of its own staff is doing something fundamentally wrong."
The Foreign Minister stressed that Ukraine has every right to demand more decisive action from the OSCE to secure the release of its own personnel.
Addressing the main topic of the Conference, Andrii Sybiha noted: "My review will be very brief. Today, there is no security in the OSCE area. End of report."
The Minister emphasized that the time has come to stop reviewing non-existent security and instead reassess the very foundations of the European security architecture. He underlined that if one participating State systematically violates all ten Helsinki principles and still retains its full rights within the Organization, then the question is whether the current mechanisms are truly effective.
"Today, the strongest part of the OSCE is not its institutional structure. It is the Chairpersonship. Finland demonstrated this last year. Switzerland is demonstrating it today," said the Minister.
The Minister expressed his gratitude to the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Vice President of Switzerland, Federal Councillor, and Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Ignazio Cassis for his personal engagement in peace efforts.
Andrii Sybiha emphasized that the only thing standing in the way of ending the war is Russia's lack of political will.
The Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine also stressed that Russia is the greatest security threat to the OSCE area, while the Organization itself remains hostage to Russia's misuse of the consensus rule.
"Simply allowing Russia to abuse the consensus rule again and again is worse than appeasement. It is capitulation," the Minister stated.
The Minister called for the development of concrete mechanisms to prevent any aggressor from blocking international peace efforts aimed at ending that aggression.
"A new security architecture is already under construction. And its foundations are not being laid in the Hofburg. They are being laid in Pokrovsk and Kupiansk," Andrii Sybiha stressed.
The Minister called on the OSCE to decide whether it belongs to the ruins of yesterday's Potemkin security order or whether it can reinvent itself and become part of tomorrow's security architecture.
"The time to stop reviewing illusions and start confronting reality was more than four years ago. Still, better late than never. I hope this conference becomes the OSCE's awakening conference," the Minister concluded.
OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ignazio Cassis highlighted in his statement that European security is going through its deepest crisis since the Cold War and reaffirmed Switzerland's strong condemnation of Russia's war against Ukraine.
A total of 325 delegates are participating in this year's OSCE Security Review Conference, including representatives of all 57 OSCE participating States, the Secretariat and autonomous institutions of the Organization, other international organizations, and the expert community.