The Baltic foreign ministers refused to participate in a meeting of the OSCE Foreign Ministers Council in Skopje due to the participation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, The Guardian reports.

"Lavrov's participation risks legitimizing the aggressor Russia as a legitimate member of our community of free nations... We, the ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, will not participate in this and will not share responsibility for the consequences that this will cause," the officials emphasized.

Also, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna, during his speech at the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting today, personally criticized the decision to allow Lavrov to attend the meeting.

"Lavrov's presence belittles the importance of the brutal crimes that Russia continues to commit. Lavrov's place is in a special tribunal, not at the OSCE table," he emphasized.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also stated that the Ukrainian delegation will not participate in the OSCE ministerial meeting.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko clarified that the boycott is at the level of the foreign minister. The Ukrainian delegation will be present at the ambassador level.

It is worth noting that last year, when the OSCE was chaired by Poland, it refused to allow Lavrov to participate in a meeting of foreign ministers of the organization's member states.