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Ukraine, Russia ministers clash at Malta meeting

2024-12-06
TA`QALI: Ukraine`s foreign minister called Russia`s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov a `war criminal` on Thursday as they both attended an international meeting in Malta, the latter`s first visit to an EU country since the 2022 invasion.

Ukraine`s Andriy Sybiga also accused Moscow of being `the biggest threat to our common security` as both ministers sat at the same huge table for a meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The ministers from Poland and Latvia and severalotherdelegateswalked out when Lavrov addressed the meeting in Ta`Qali, near Malta, according to a diplomatic source.

Polish Foreign MinisterRadoslaw Sikorski said earlier Thursday he refused to `listen to those lies`, and then repeated a call for Russia to be suspended from the OSCE.

The 57-nation body was formed in the midst of the Cold War, but has been largely paralysed since Moscow`s invasion of Ukraine, with Russia vetoing major decisions that require unanimous consent.

Lavrov, sitting between the representatives of San Marino and Romania, accused Nato and the EU of politicising the OSCE and making it irrelevant.

He said the West was behind a `reincarnation of the Cold War, only now with a much greater risk of a transition to a hot one`, according to Russia`s RIA Novosti agency.-AFP