Moscow will provide every support to the new OSCE special representative in Ukraine, Heidi Grau, who is replacing Martin Sajdik, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday
BRATISLAVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th December, 2019) Moscow will provide every support to the new OSCE special representative in Ukraine, Heidi Grau, who is replacing Martin Sajdik, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.Earlier in the day, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Miroslav Lajcak announced that Swiss diplomat Grau would succeed Sajdik at the post.
Before a meeting with Grau, Lavrov held brief face-to-face talks with Sajdik. Afterward, the two diplomats were joined by the new special representative in Ukraine.
"We congratulate you and will try to give you support, the same we gave your predecessor," Lavrov told Grau on the sidelines of the 26th Meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Bratislava.
Grau thanked Lavrov and joked that when she had visited Moscow to meet with Russian deputy foreign ministers, they had all asked her whether she really wanted that job, hinting at the challenges facing the special representative.
"I answered: 'Yes, I really want to,'" she said, smiling.
The conflict between the Ukrainian government forces and the self-proclaimed republics of Donbas has been ongoing since 2014. The OSCE special envoy chairs the meetings of the Trilateral Contact Group on the crisis settlement, which brings together representatives of the organization, Ukraine and Russia.
