OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Miroslav Lajčak, who is also Slovakia's Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, and Ukraine Foreign Minister Klimkin on Friday discussed during a phone call the upcoming Ukrainian presidential election.
Lajčák "expressed his deep regret" over the passing by the Verkhovna Rada of the law to deny accreditation to international election observers, including within the ODIHR Election Observation Mission to Ukraine, who hold Russian passports, according to the OSCE press service.
The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office "called upon the Ukrainian authorities to continue to explore all possible avenues for a solution that would allow all ODIHR observers to be accredited for these elections."
In turn, Pavlo Klimkin said Ukraine was ready to receive as many observers as needed from any countries but Russia, and proposed to "cross the t's and dot the i's on the issue".
In a statement delivered via Facebook Feb 8, Klimkin recalled that he had informed the OSCE ODIHR chief in a letter that FA Ukraine would not be accepting applications from Russian official observers.
"Not only would it be politically incorrect, this would also be in breach of moral principles and legislation," the foreign minister wrote. "So I'd rather we cross the t's and dot the i's in discussions around a sovereign decision of a sovereign state, and move on," Klimkin said.
