On January 9, 2025 Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Mariana Betsa held a meeting with Director of the Conflict Prevention Centre of the OSCE Secretariat Catherine Fearon. Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna Yuriy Vitrenko also attended the event. 

Deputy Minister Mariana Betsa welcomed the start of OSCE Finland’s Chairpersonship in 2025 and highly appreciated the visit of the OSCE political leadership to Ukraine at the beginning of the year. This visit confirmed that the issue of countering Russian aggression is high on the OSCE agenda and remains a standing priority for the Organization.

“Ukraine counts on a strong reaction by the OSCE to the criminal actions of the Russian Federation as an aggressor state which violated all OSCE fundamental principles and commitments. Promoting the restoration of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine based on the President Zelenskyy’s Peace Formula as well as defending the Helsinki Fundamental Principles on which the Organization has been founded, have a particularly significant context within the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act in 2025," emphasized Mariana Betsa.

Deputy Minister accentuated the priority issue of returning home all Ukrainian children illegally deported by Russia. In this context, she called on the OSCE to join the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children.

Mariana Betsa underlined the importance of an active involvement of the OSCE and its participating States in the process of the release of all Ukrainian citizens illegally detained in Russia and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, including three former OSCE SMM staff members who are citizens of Ukraine.

Deputy Minister also emphasized the importance of elaborating OSCE projects aimed at priority needs of Ukraine triggered by the consequences of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression.