HomeBriefings – Foreign Press Centers...Supporting Ukraine against Russia’s unjustified war through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)

# 									Supporting Ukraine against Russia’s unjustified war through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)							

FPC Briefing

Ambassador Michael Carpenter, the Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the OSCE  

Tuesday, July 25, 2023, 10:30 am ET

Washington, D.C.

July 25, 2023

## 								Summary							

        -  
Ambassador Michael Carpenter discusses U.S. support for Ukraine against Russia’sillegal and unjustified warand the tools theOSCEisusingto support Ukraine.  These tools includeholding Russia accountable for its OSCE commitments,documentation of war crimes,and supporting the Ukrainian people through a wide range of programsfrom demining to psychological support.  
 

**THE WASHINGTON FOREIGN PRESS CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C.**

**MODERATOR:**Okay.  Good morning and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center for this on-the-record briefing.  My name is Jean Foschetti, and I will be the moderator today.  It’s my pleasure to welcome our distinguished briefer, the Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the OSCE Ambassador Michael Carpenter.  Ambassador Carpenter will discuss U.S. support for Ukraine against Russia’s illegal and unjustified war, and the tools the OSCE is using to support Ukraine.  

As noted, this briefing is on the record and is being live streamed on our website at fpc.state.gov.  The transcript will also be posted there later today.  After we hear from Ambassador Carpenter, we will have a question-and-answer session.  And just for administrative note, the briefing will last no longer than 11:15 today.  And with that, I’m going to turn the floor over to Ambassador Carpenter.  

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**Great.  Thanks so much and good morning.  It’s great to be with you.  At the top, I’d like to say that the United States has been very focused at the OSCE, which is the world’s largest regional security organization, on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.  In fact, every week Russia stoops to new lows and doubles down on the sorts of monstrous behaviors that have defined its war effort from the very start, and we’re going to keep exposing what they’re doing.  

The OSCE’s efforts have led many in the international community, based in fact on the OSCE’s very own factfinding missions, to declare that some of the actions that Russia has taken in Ukraine amount to crimes against humanity.  And we need to keep talking about this, because what Russia has done in places like Bucha and Borodyanka and Mariupol is, frankly, unconscionable, and we have a duty to keep recording what it is doing inside Ukraine each and every week, because it keeps doing new things.  

Now, I want to point out just recently, in the last couple days, we saw Russia’s barbaric attack on Odesa’s UNESCO protected historic town center, as well as the Orthodox cathedral there – yet another attack on Ukraine’s cultural heritage and its national identity.  I think it’s pretty clear what Russia is trying to do here, which is to wipe out an independent Ukrainian nation state and subjugate it to Russia’s control.  

Also, there’s Russia’s weaponization of hunger.  Russia has destroyed 60,000 tons of grain in Ukraine.  Just yesterday, it struck a grain storage facility in the town of Reni on the Danube River, near the borders of Moldova and Romania.  And Russia has also unilaterally withdrawn from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, causing the price of wheat and other food stuffs to spike all around the world.  Many people in developing countries will go hungry as a direct result of Russia’s irresponsible and callous behavior.  

And I want to point out that we have information that Russia intends to target civilian shipping in the Black Sea, laying mines on approaches to Ukrainian ports, and that it will try to blame Ukraine for any damage to civilian vessels in the Black Sea.  And I want to also point out that this is a pattern that we’ve seen time and again, where Russia accuses Ukraine of committing the crimes that it itself is perpetrating.  

And for – by way of background, thanks to the mediation on the Black Sea Grain Initiative, thanks to the mediation of the United Nations and Türkiye, the Black Sea Grain Initiative has allowed for the export to date of 32 million metric tons of Ukrainian grain and food stuffs – two thirds of that – fully two thirds going to developing countries.  And now Russia has cut this off.  It’s a heartless – frankly, cynical – effort to weaken Ukraine that’s causing harm to millions of innocent civilians around the world.  

Meanwhile, Russia makes a killing off the artificially inflated food prices, and it is raking in record profits.  Russia, of course, claims that Western sanctions are blocking their exports, but that is a patent falsehood.  They’re exporting more grain at higher prices than ever before.  

All of this is happening while Russian officials send Ukrainian children deep into Russia, trying to re-educate them in special camps that try to deny these children’s Ukrainian identity and create a sense of allegiance to Russia.  It’s immoral and it’s wrong.  

Russian officials are also instituting a so-called filtration system.  I’ve talked about this extensively in the past.  I speak about it every week at the OSCE’s Permanent Council.  These filtration operations take place across the occupied territories, where civilians are subjected to unlawful arrest and detention, where many are split apart from their families, and many have reported being subjected to torture.  Many thousands of Ukrainians have been forcibly disappeared as part of this process.  And we know that many Ukrainian civilians – both children and adults – are currently being kept in Russia’s jails, not just in the occupied territories of Ukraine but in Russia itself, where these individuals vanish into a vast network of detention facilities that constitute essentially a modern-day gulag.

The United States is therefore determined to keep using OSCE tools, like the Moscow Mechanism, to expose these atrocities, both for the sake of the historical record but also for the sake of future accountability efforts.  We’re also determined to keep Russia isolated at the OSCE, where currently not one single other OSCE participating state supports Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.  

We’re not going to let Russia veto the OSCE’s work in Ukraine either.  We have a brand new OSCE field mission in Ukraine that will deliver for the Ukrainian people.  It’ll work in the area of humanitarian de-mining, providing psychological support to Ukrainian children and families, help support accountability efforts, strengthen cyber security, support civil society, and much more.  The United States is proud to generously contribute to this new field mission. 

In closing, let me just recall for you that the OSCE is an organization that was born after the conclusion of the Helsinki Final Act, which enshrines basic norms of interstate behavior, including the inviolability of borders, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.  Nearly 50 years ago, the countries that signed the Helsinki Final Act agreed to these commitments and, importantly, also to hold each other accountable for their violations.  And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.  We intend to continue to use all the tools available to us to hold Russia accountable for its war of choice and to support the independence and sovereignty of all 57 of the OSCE’s participating states. 

Thank you.  And with that, I’d be happy to take your questions.  

**MODERATOR:**  Thank you, Ambassador Carpenter, for your remarks.  We’re going to open up to questions, as he said.  We’ll first take some from the journalists in the room, and then we’ll take some from those on Zoom.  Just please raise your hand in person or virtually, and I’ll call on you.  And if I do, please give your name, country, and outlet.  

First question, we’ll go in the front here.  

**QUESTION:**  Marcin Wronga of TVN, Poland.  Mr. Ambassador, is the support for Ukraine, not only from the United States but worldwide and OSCE, as strong now as it was a year and a half ago?  Aren’t you afraid that the world is becoming tired of this war? 

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**  Marcin, I’ve been asked this question many times, and I don’t believe that the world is becoming tired.  Yes, there was an initial shock factor when Russia marched into Ukraine in February of 2022, but the world has galvanized against this brutal assault on international values.  And I see more and more countries waking up to the reality of what is happening in Ukraine, across the world.  You’ve had many leaders travel to Ukraine.  They’ve visited Bucha, for example.  They’ve seen for themselves, for their own eyes, the atrocities that were perpetrated.  They’ve spoken to survivors and eyewitnesses, who have gone through the filtration process.  And so they understand viscerally what this war of aggression is all about.

And look, there was just recently a delegation of African leaders that traveled to Kyiv.  And on the day that they visited Kyiv, Moscow chose to launch missiles at the capital, on Kyiv, while there were foreign heads of state and other dignitaries visiting.  I think that is causing those around the world that may have had any doubts about what is happening to understand the true nature of this aggression.  

So when I look at the NATO Alliance and when I look at our partners in the OSCE outside of NATO, I see a determination to resist this aggression, both by providing Ukraine with humanitarian support, economic and macro-financial support.  Some countries also contributing now – it’s around 50 countries – military support.  And I think this will sustain itself, because the world does understand that what it’s seeing is not just a transgression of international norms in the abstract, but it’s a concrete violation of human values and human decency.  

**QUESTION:**  Is the support enough to keep Ukraine alive and to eventually have Ukraine win this? 

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**  Our – thank you for the question.  Our determination is to have Ukraine emerge victorious, to prevail in this conflict, to reclaim its territory, to liberate its land, because that is the right thing to do, and that is what will support the international rules-based order that all of us, every country in the international system around the world – not just in the OSCE, but around the world – benefits from and supports.  

**QUESTION:**  Thank you. 

**MODERATOR:**  Sure.  We’ll go to this gentleman here and then to you. 

**QUESTION:**  I’m Pavel Novak.  I’m from Czech Radio, public radio in the Czech Republic.  Ukraine, the President Zelenskyy, are calling for a creation of some international court, which could sue the Russian, Russia for the crimes, the war crimes.  So do you think that OSCE would be the good base for creation of such a judicial body?  If it’s not European Union and not NATO, so can it be built on the base of this organization? 

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**  So thank you for the question.  I think where the OSCE comes into play is with documenting the atrocities, war crimes, and indeed, the crimes against humanity that have been found in now several OSCE factfinding mission under the aegis of the Moscow Mechanism.  So the OSCE has had these factfinding missions that have deployed and that have documented atrocities.  It also has the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights that has been regularly recording violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and that will continue.  

This information, this data, that is being compiled is then being shared with other actors that are pursuing accountability for this war of aggression, namely with the International Criminal Court, which is investigating war crimes against numerous officials.  It is also supporting the Ukrainian prosecutor general, who is also bringing cases of war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law.  

And then finally, when it comes to this notion of a tribunal to prosecute the crime of aggression, the OSCE is not the right legal basis for this.  The G7 is united currently in understanding that there will be an internationalized court that will look at this issue.  It will not be established in the OSCE, but it will benefit from all of the documentation that has been collected by various actors, both international organizations, NGOs, and governments, and it will pursue that case. 

**QUESTION:**  So it should be some ad hoc court like ICTY for Yugoslavia? 

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**  As I said, the U.S. is in lockstep with our G7 partners on this issue.  We agree that an internationalized tribunal is appropriate.  The exact legal basis is still being discussed, but there is a pathway forward through which the crime of aggression can be brought to justice. 

**MODERATOR:**  Next question. 

**QUESTION:**  Hi.  Shelby Rayer from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.  Would you elaborate more on the OSCE response to Russia’s withdrawal from this grain deal, and not just in the short term, but could you give us a bit of a glimpse of sort of the longer-term response, given the new situation? 

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**  Yes.  Well, this new situation now creates great uncertainty in world markets.  So the impact on the Global South, on developing countries, will be considerable.  As I mentioned, the Black Sea Grain Initiative supported the export of Ukrainian grains and other foodstuffs to the entire world, and two thirds of that went to developing countries.  So the impact is going to be most felt in the Global South.  There will be a range of actions that the United States and our partners in the G7 and in the G20 will have to take to alleviate some of those impacts.

At the OSCE, we are focused on what we are able to do on the ground.  As I mentioned, the new support program for Ukraine will engage in activities like humanitarian demining, which is essential for farmers to be able to go back and cultivate their land in the future, given the extent of mines that have been placed, unexploded ordnance, and other munitions that Russia has essentially deployed into Ukraine.  It’s an area, if you think about it geographically, that is twice the size of the country of Austria.  We’re talking about an enormous area that has been mined and that has unexploded ordnance.  And so for the sake of Ukrainian agriculture going forward, it’s going to take a concerted effort, not just from the OSCE but from numerous international actors – USAID is very much involved in this space as well – to demine this land.  

And of course, the ultimate objective is to allow Ukraine to prevail.  Because as long as this war continues, Russia will continue to hinder – well, it will continue to bomb Ukrainian cities and towns, and it will continue to contaminate this land.

**QUESTION:**  Thanks.  Follow-up?  Do you have sort of the timeframe for how long the OSCE is planning on funding those demining activities (inaudible)?

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**  The United States – I represent the United States, so I will tell you that we are determined to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, and the OSCE program that has been set up is of indefinite duration.  There were three OSCE missions that previously existed over the past decade in Ukraine, each of which was vetoed by the Russian Federation based on the consensus principle through which the OSCE operates.  This newest support program for Ukraine is entirely funded by voluntary contributions and has zero Russian influence or Russian ability to veto.  So this mission will continue for as long as Ukraine sees benefit in having likeminded participating states support its efforts to protect its sovereignty and to carry forward with its democratic traditions.

**QUESTION:**  Thank you.

**MODERATOR:**  We’ll go to Alex, and then we’ll take a question online.

**QUESTION:**  Thank you so much.  Alex Raufoglu from Turan News Agency.  Ambassador, welcome back to D.C.  Staying on the topic – I do have some other questions related to OSCE – if we have time, we’ll go back to it.  But on BSGI, I want to dig into the collapse of the deal.  Is there any credible way out of this?  There are ideas that NATO could protect the ships – well, Russia is not a member of NATO, unfortunately still member of OSCE.  Are you entertaining some ideas of having OSCE monitors help with the ships?

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**  Look, at this point I won’t speak to NATO.  This is an issue that Russia could end today if it wanted to.  Russia is perpetrating this war of choice against Ukraine; Russia unilaterally withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative.  Russia could restore commercial shipping today, as I said, if it wanted to, if it had political will.  So it will now be incumbent on the international community to decide what step – further steps to take.  

We would certainly support the efforts of the UN and Türkiye, who brokered the initial deal, to continue to press Russia to come back to the deal.  Because frankly, all of the justifications that the Russian side has given for exiting this arrangement are based on false pretenses.  So for example, as I said earlier, Russia has claimed that there are sanctions imposed on its exports of fertilizer and foodstuffs, which is patently false.  It is not true that the United States is sanctioning those goods.  

And so right now we believe, for the sake of the Global South and the hungry populations that live around the world that depend on those foodstuffs coming from Ukraine, that Russia should immediately accede back to this arrangement – which is, as I said, 32 million metric tons of foodstuffs have been provided, mostly to the developing world, since this deal was inaugurated.

**QUESTION:**  Please come back to me later, if possible, to cover some other OSCE-related questions, if possible.

**MODERATOR:**  Do you want to follow up now, or do you want —

**QUESTION:**  If it’s okay, because I just don’t want to – the Secretary yesterday said that Russia has been trying to prevent OSCE from moving forward on multiple occasions.  Are you in a position to elaborate more on that?  Is the HDIM going to happen this year?  We’re just weeks ahead of that.  Obviously, you have been observing human rights concerns in the South Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Georgia; activists that you have been meeting during the HDIM.  And there’s (inaudible) in Georgia have – there’s backsliding democracy.  Are you concerned about that?  And if you are going to seize the opportunity this September to meet with activists.  Thank you.

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**  Thank you.  So you’re referring to the OSCE’s annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, which is a signature event that takes place every year in the fall – September, October – where civil society organizations from around the OSCE, from every single participating state, if they have the wherewithal and the capacity, come in order to hold governments accountable to the commitments that we all undertook both in the Helsinki Final Act, which of course was signed nearly 50 years ago, but also in the Charter of Paris and in other OSCE documents.  

And it is really important for civil society to be able to speak directly to governmental actors and to point out shortcomings and violations of their commitments.  We believe that that is both an effort at transparency, but it’s also – it’s fundamentally what we’re about.  It’s about protecting the values and the principles upon which our organization stands.  And you’re right, the Secretary referred to Russia’s obstructionism in the OSCE, which takes place in many different areas – on budget, on agreements to deploy field missions, but also on this issue of a human dimension conference.  Russia generally opposes most initiatives that have to deal with human rights and democracy on the OSCE.

I’m proud to say that last year, the Polish chair in office of the OSCE decided, despite Russia’s objections, to hold the conference in Warsaw over the same exact two-week period that we have done in the past.  And we had 1,100 civil society activists from Vancouver to Vladivostok show up and engage in the sorts of accountability and discussions, frankly, amongst themselves as well networking for which this event is well known.  And we expect that the current chair – North Macedonia has the current chair in office of the OSCE for this calendar year – that they will replicate this decision and decide to move forward despite Russia’s objections, because at the end of the day, we can’t allow one participating state that is bent on violating all the norms of the OSCE to hold the rest of the organization hostage, and we will move forward with these sorts of activities.

**MODERATOR:**  Thank you.  We’ll take a question online and then we’ll come back to the room.  We’re going to go to Viviana Mazza online, so Viviana, please go ahead and ask your question.

**QUESTION:**  Yes, thank you for doing this, Ambassador.  So I have two questions.  One is on July 27th, our prime minister from Italy – I work for Corriere della Sera in Italy – will be meeting with Biden.  What can the U.S. – what can Italy do more, in your opinion, for Ukraine?

And the second part of the question – there was just a visit by the envoy of the Pope, Zuppi, in Washington.  He met with Biden, and they talked about the children who were forcibly removed from Ukraine to Russia, and they apparently talked about also other prisoners, and now he is planning to go to China.  How useful could be the intervention of the mediation of the Vatican, both for humanitarian issues but also perhaps for a – in a search of a solution for the war?

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**  So thank you.  Italy has been a steadfast ally and partner for the United States on countering Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.  Italy is, of course, a member of the NATO Alliance.  It is an EU member-state.  It is an OSCE participating state.  It is also one of the members of the G7, and together we have worked very hard to coordinate our sanctions and other imposed costs, including export controls, on Russia.  And Italy has also participated in the so-called Ramstein format of countries that convene on a periodic basis regularly to discuss how to provide the most effective military support for Ukraine at the current time.  And so Italy has been an essential partner in that effort to provide Ukraine with military assistance, humanitarian assistance, and other forms of financial assistance.

When it comes to mediation efforts, we are open to all efforts to resolve some of these absolutely tragic and brutal circumstances that we see evolving from Russia’s war of choice, including this horrific issue of children who have been separated from their families, who have been forcibly taken across the border or sometimes across the front lines into Russian-occupied territory; sent often to these re-education camps in Russia, where they are subjected to a regimen of propaganda that seeks to brainwash these poor kids, some of them just young, even – not even of elementary school age, and try to inculcate some sort of allegiance to Russia as opposed to Ukraine.  It is truly chilling.

So any efforts that can be undertaken to try to put an end to this horrific practice or to reunite these kids with their families – oftentimes they have parents in Ukraine or extended families in Ukraine – to bring them back to their home country are appreciated.  There are a number of NGOs that work in this space.  There are also some international organizations, including the OSCE, I must say.  The support program for Ukraine which I mentioned earlier will hopefully shortly be engaged in an effort – in fact, it’s already partly engaged in this effort – to provide psychological support to these children who have been absolutely traumatized.  I mean, imagine just being ripped apart from your family and sent to a foreign country, where you’re then taught to emulate and to pay homage to a leader that is not your president, that is not from your country.

So we are providing that psychological support and will continue to do so, but this is an issue that I think – it resonates certainly with most Americans, certainly with Italians, and, frankly, with people around the world.  And so we’re going to have to keep at it, because Russia has implemented a systematic effort.  This is not just ad hoc.  This is a systematic effort that involves many of the so-called children’s rights ombudsmen in the various different Russian regions who are part of this network that takes these children out and then sends them on to either foster families or, as I said, these re-education camps.

**MODERATOR:**Thank you.  For our next question, we’ll go back into our briefing room here. 

**QUESTION:**My name is Liudmila Chernova.  I’m from Sputnik News in Russia.  Over the weekend, on Saturday, there was an attack on Russian journalists.  And the journalist of Russia’s RIA Novosti was killed in this attack, and three others were injured – if you have a reaction, and if you will look into this incident. 

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**Sure.  So the United States condemns any attacks on journalists wherever and whenever they take place.  But I have to say that in this circumstance, the solution is for Russia to end its war of aggression against Ukraine.  A lot of the tragedies that we see playing out across Ukraine, including the one I mentioned with children who have been abducted from their families, with civilians who have been tortured in interrogation centers, with journalists – now dozens of journalists – who have been killed in this war.  

None of this would have happened if Russia had not invaded its neighbor with absolutely no reason whatsoever other than a desire for imperial control of additional land.  So Russia could really rectify this situation by putting an end to this war of choice today if it chose to do so.

**MODERATOR:**Follow-up?  

**QUESTION:**One more?  On the separate topic, but also on Ukraine, Russian Patriarch Kirill appealed the United Nations and to the OSCE to protect Metropolitan Pavel, the abbot of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery.  Again, your position on the situation with him – he is detained by Kyiv – and if you have discussions with Kyiv and if OSCE will look into the situation with Metropolitan.  

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**So I don’t have anything specific for you on this.  I will say that it is deeply disturbing to see Russian airstrikes, repeatedly over the course of these last 18 months of this war, target Ukrainian cultural heritage, including religious institutions.  Many churches, monasteries, other religious sites have been hit in the course of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine.  

And as I mentioned in my opening comments, the Orthodox cathedral in Odesa, a real architectural gem and part of this UNESCO-protected World Heritage Site in Odesa, recently destroyed – partially destroyed by a Russian missile strike – is just appalling.  And one has to ask oneself:  Why is this happening?  And unfortunately, the inescapable conclusion is that there is an effort to seek to undermine Ukrainian national identity, including its cultural heritage.  And look, I won’t pronounce on this, but if in fact this is an intentional effort, it would constitute a war crime.  And I’m sure it will be subject to future accountability efforts.

**MODERATOR:**Our next question, we’ll go back to our participants on Zoom.  And we’ll go to Oskar Gorzunski.  Please, go ahead, Oskar.

**QUESTION:**Hi.  Thank you for doing this.  I wish I was there with you.  But so I wanted to ask, because you mentioned that Russia is preparing a potential false flag attack on civilian ships in the Black Sea, if that indeed happens, do you have any response to that ready at the go?  And have you communicated to Russia that it will be met with some response?  Thank you.  

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**So we have tried at every step of this war to seek to put information out into the public domain as soon as we receive it about Russia’s intentions.  In fact, we did this prior to February 22nd, where the United States declassified a considerable amount of intelligence to be able to share with the world Russia’s intentions.  In fact, I myself spoke to this from the State Department podium on several occasions.  

We seek to do that in this case as well.  We think it’s important for the world to understand that this planning is underway.  And certainly, look, this, an attack on a civilian shipping vessel, would also be a war crime.  And so that we would take this very, very seriously, and we are currently telling the world that we have information.  Of course, we’ll have to see what happens in the coming days, but we have information that such plans do exist.  And again, this – if it were an intentional attack on civilian shipping, this would constitute a violation of international humanitarian law.  

**MODERATOR:**Thank you.  Opportunity for any follow-ups here in the briefing room?  

Yes, please, go ahead.  

**QUESTION:**Has the OSCE heard or the United States heard any response from global partners?  Obviously you mentioned that the impact of the Russia’s pulling out of Black Sea is felt there.  Has the United States heard anything from these global partners about what they want the United States or OSCE to do in this situation?  Has it caused any of them to reconsider maybe an allied stance in Ukraine?  

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**  I do think it’s having an impact around the world.  Now, I sit as our permanent representative to the OSCE.  I can tell you that within the OSCE context there has been widespread condemnation of Russia’s unilateral move to exit from the Black Sea Grain Initiative from a number of countries in the OSCE, and in fact, as I mentioned earlier, not one single participating state that defends Russia’s war of aggression or its current move to exit from this arrangement which has so benefited so many people in the Global South.  

I do believe that across the wider world there are many countries that are starting to understand with greater acuity what is happening and why Russia is doing this.  As I said, Russia claims that it is the victim, but in fact it is raking in record profits from the surge in agricultural prices and exporting more than it has ever exported before.  And look, other countries understand this.  They see the facts; they see the data.  And so they understand that this war of aggression against Ukraine is also impacting them and it’s impacting their populations and that what Russia is saying is a very cynical attempt to deflect blame for something that it itself is doing.  It launched this war.  It withdrew from this agreement – again, brokered through the good offices of the United Nations and Türkiye, and we thank them for their efforts.  But at the end of the day, Russia has unfortunately walked away from something that would help feed millions of people around the world.  

And so yes, there is a realization that this is happening and that it is impacting people around the world.  

**MODERATOR:**  Great.  I’m afraid that’s all the time we have for questions today.  So on behalf of the Foreign Press Centers, I want to extend our gratitude to our briefer, Ambassador Carpenter, for taking the time to brief here today.  

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**  Thanks.

**MODERATOR:**  Also thanks to all our FPC member journalists who participated in person and online, and thank you.  That concludes today’s briefing.

**AMBASSADOR CARPENTER:**  Thank you.  

Tags

District of ColumbiaForeign Press CentersForeign Press CentersNew YorkOrganization for Security and Co-operation in EuropeSecurityTreaties and International Agreements

## Related Articles

-  											 									
Read more
 

Back to Top