Today at 22:03
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called for a fundamental overhaul of Europe’s security architecture and warned against Russia’s continued abuse of the OSCE consensus principle while opening the Annual Security Review Conference under Switzerland’s chairmanship.
In his video address to participants, Sybiha began by naming three former members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine — Maksym Petrov, Dmytro Shabanov, and Vadym Holda — who have been illegally detained by Russia since 2022, UATV English reports.
He thanked OSCE Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioğlu for his efforts to secure their release but said the broader picture remained troubling.
“A security organization that cannot guarantee the safety of its own personnel is doing something fundamentally wrong,” Sybiha said, stressing that Ukraine has every right to expect more decisive action from the OSCE.
Turning to the conference’s main theme, the foreign minister offered a blunt assessment.
“My security review will be very short. Today, there is no security in the OSCE area. End of report,” he said.
Sybiha argued that instead of reviewing nonexistent security, the organization should reassess the foundations of Europe’s security architecture. He questioned the effectiveness of existing mechanisms if a participating state can systematically violate all ten principles of the Helsinki Final Act while retaining all of its rights within the organization.
“The strength of the OSCE today lies not in its institutional structure. Its strength lies in the Chairmanship. Finland demonstrated this last year. Switzerland is demonstrating it today,” he said.
The minister thanked OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis for his personal involvement in peace efforts, adding that ending the war depends only on the willingness of the aggressor state.
Sybiha described Russia as the greatest threat to security across the OSCE region and warned that the organization itself has become hostage to Moscow’s abuse of the consensus rule.
“Simply allowing Russia to abuse the consensus rule again and again is worse than appeasement. It is capitulation,” he said.
He called for the creation of mechanisms that would prevent any aggressor from blocking international efforts aimed at stopping its own aggression.
“The new security architecture is already being built today. Its foundations are being laid not in Vienna’s Hofburg Palace, where the OSCE sits, but in Pokrovsk and Kupiansk,” Sybiha said.
He urged the organization to decide whether it wants to remain part of the ruins of yesterday’s “Potemkin security order” or become part of a new security architecture for the future.
“The time to stop reviewing illusions and start facing reality came more than four years ago. But better late than never. I hope this conference becomes the OSCE’s wake-up conference,” Sybiha concluded.
In his remarks, Swiss Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ignazio Cassis said European security is experiencing its deepest crisis since the Cold War and reaffirmed Switzerland’s strong condemnation of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
This year’s Annual Security Review Conference brought together 325 delegates, including representatives of all 57 OSCE participating states, the organization’s institutions, international organizations, and experts.
