(MENAFN- UkrinForm) The Netherlands will provide Ukraine with an additional aid package of €2.5 billion in 2024.
According to an Ukrinform correspondent, this was stated by Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot during a speech at the plenary session of the OSCE Ministerial Council on Thursday in Skopje.
The Netherlands will continue to support Ukraine in all possible ways for as long as it's needed. The Netherlands is pleased to announce that the country will help Ukraine with an additional €2.5 billion support package for 2024, she said.
The Dutch Foreign Minister emphasized that Russia, by waging war against Ukraine, has trampled on the UN Charter and the basic principles of the OSCE set out in the Helsinki Final Act.
Read also: OSCE Ministerial Council meeting: 36 countries call on Russia to withdraw forces from Ukrain
Only Russia can stop this war. The Ukrainian people are bravely defending their territory, their sovereignty and their freedom, Bruins Slot stated.
She also strongly condemned Russia's policy of illegally transferring and deporting Ukrainian children, adding that this is happening with the complicity of Belarus.
This policy is aimed at destroying Ukrainian identity and culture. Russia must immediately return Ukrainian children to their homeland. She will call on all OSCE participating states to support efforts to reunite these children with their families, the minister said.
She called on the Russian Federation to immediately release the OSCE SMM staff who have been detained for more than 20 months.
Read also: Kuleba to boycott
OSCE meeting due to Lavrov's presence
As Ukrinform reported, the two-day annual meeting of the Ministerial Council of the OSCE began in Skopje on Thursday, November 30. The speeches of the OSCE foreign ministers are expected to focus on Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine.
Ministers are also expected to approve Malta's chairmanship of the Organization next year. This non-NATO EU country became a compromise candidate after Russia blocked the approval of Estonia, which was to lead the OSCE in 2024.
The Ministerial Council is expected to continue seeking consensus on extending the mandate of four high-ranking OSCE officials, including the Secretary General, as Russia is also blocking a package decision on their appointment.
Read also: Ukraine at
OSCE stresses need to immediately regain control of Zaporizhzhia NPP
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba boycotts the OSCE ministerial meeting in North Macedonia due to an invitation from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Ukrainian delegation to Skopje is headed by Ukraine's Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna, Yevhen Tsymbalyuk.
The foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland also do not participate in the OSCE Ministerial Council because of the presence of the aggressor country's foreign minister.
Photo: OSCE
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