Ukraine welcomes the support of 41 participating countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for the joint statement on the malicious activities of Russia, Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (MFA) Heorhiy Tykhy said.

"Another important development of the OSCE meeting today. We are grateful to the 41 OSCE participating countries that supported the joint statement prepared by Ukraine on the malicious activities of Russia," Tykhy said at a briefing in Kyiv on Friday.

According to him, "literally just now" the statement was read out at a meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the OSCE countries. The spokesman said the statement was "a development of the signals" of Head of the Ukrainian MFA Andriy Sybiha, who emphasized at the meeting that Russia is "the greatest and main threat to security and cooperation in the OSCE area." "The statement is about the fact that Russia uses a variety of methods: from interference in elections and cyberattacks to attempts to physically eliminate opponents, undermine the European legal order, and weaken support for Ukraine. It is important that these methods do not go unnoticed thanks to such statements," Tykhy said.

On December 4-5, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sybiha visited the Republic of Malta to participate in the 31st annual meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council.

Sybiha left the OSCE plenary hall before the speech of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Following Sybiha, a number of foreign ministers and diplomats also left the hall.