KYIV. July 19 (Interfax) - Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Chairperson-in-Office Ann Linde has appointed Finnish diplomat Mikko Kinnunen as her special representative in Ukraine and the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on Donbas, the Finnish Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
"Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden Ann Linde, who is the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in 2021, has appointed Ambassador Mikko Kinnunen to serve as the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group. Kinnunen will take up his duties on 1 August," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It was reported on July 6 that the previous special representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office in Ukraine and the TCG, Swiss diplomat Heidi Grau, was likely to withdraw from the negotiating process in the TCG. It was expected that Grau's resignation would be announced on July 21.
Grau has served in the job since December 2019, having replaced Austrian diplomat Martin Sajdik.
Kinnunen is currently the political director (director general for political affairs) at the Finnish Foreign Ministry. In 2009-2013, Kinnunen served as Finland's ambassador to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. He has also worked at the embassies in Moscow and Washington, D.C. and at the Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations in New York.