Russia’s Lavrov reportedly to make first visit to EU country since launching full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov plans to visit Malta in December to attend the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) Ministerial Council meeting, ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Vedomosti newspaper on October 31.

If the visit happens, it will be Lavrovhis first trip to an EU country since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The last time Lavrov visited a eu the country was in 2021 when he traveled to the OSCE meeting in Stockholm, Sweden. He also visited UN General Assembly to New York several times during Moscow’s total war.

While both the EU and the US imposed sanctions on Lavrov in February 2022, they did not impose a travel ban such as the EU and the UK she wanted to stay open diplomatic channels with Russia.

According to the Maltese embassy in Russia, the decision to hold the meeting of the OSCE Council of Foreign Ministers scheduled for December 5-6 “applies to all (its) members, including the Russian Federation,” the Russian newspaper wrote.

In 2023, Lavrov participated in OSCE Summit in North Macedonia, which caused a rift among OSCE members, leading to a boycott of the meeting of the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states.

The OSCE was established in the 1970s as the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, which provided a platform for dialogue between the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc during the Cold War.

In September, Lavrov warned in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly that Ukraine and its Western allies should not try to “fight for victory with a nuclear power.”

Since launching the full-scale invasion, Russia has repeatedly invoked its threat nuclear arsenal to deter Western military support for Ukraine.

In his speech to the General Assembly, Lavrov called Western attempts to defeat Russia “a suicidal escapade.”

“I will not talk here about the senselessness and danger of the very idea of ​​trying to fight for victory with a nuclear power, which is Russia,” Lavrov. said.

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