The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine has said that Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara and representatives of the ministry did not attend the informal part of the 2014 Snow Meeting in the Lithuanian city of Trakai because the format of the event did not require this.

"The traditional meeting, which takes place in Lithuanian city Trakai in the beginning of the year, as a rule, is devoted to one topic – transatlantic cooperation between the EU and the United States, and it traditionally invites the leaders of foreign ministries of Northern Europe, the Baltic States, some countries of Central Europe (EU members), and representatives of the United States and NATO," director of information policy department of Ukraine's Foreign Ministry Yevhen Perebyinis said when asked to comment on reports in the media that Kozhara wasn't invited to the meeting.

The ministry's spokesman said that Lithuanian Foreign Ministry organizes the meeting, and this year invitations were sent to the foreign ministers of Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Romania and Slovakia.

"I want to stress that this meeting is of an informal character, and in addition to the main topic, another current issues on the agenda are discussed," he said.

Perebyinis added that there are open and closed parts of the event, and experts from various countries are invited to attend the open part.

"That's why it isn't correct to talk about the participation of Ukraine in this event. Only experts from Ukraine invited by the Lithuanian party could attend," he said.

As reported, Co-chair of the Ukraine-EU Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, and former Foreign Minister of Ukraine (2009-2010) Petro Poroshenko participated in the 2014 Snow Meeting informal meeting in Lithuania in January 2014. Some media wrote that Lithuania had refused to invite Ukrainian diplomats to attend the event.