Lithuania ready to deploy training troops in Ukraine, but no request from kyiv yet, PM says

Lithuania is ready to send its soldiers to Ukraine for a training mission, its Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė told the FT.

Lithuania, which gained independence from Moscow in 1990, is seeking to strengthen its military support for Ukraine amid the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war.

Previously, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė approved Macron’s strategy of “strategic ambiguity” about the deployment option, suggesting that it effectively counters Putin’s unpredictability.

Now, Simonytė has revealed to the Financial Times that she has obtained parliamentary authorization to deploy Lithuanian troops to Ukraine for training purposes, although kyiv has not yet made such a request. Acknowledging that Russia would view the move as a provocation, she asserted that inaction for fear of a Russian response would hamper any aid to Ukraine:

“If we just thought about the Russian response, we wouldn’t be able to send anything. Every two weeks we hear that someone is going to be bombed.» said Simonytė.

The Lithuanian Prime Minister dismissed concerns about Russia’s potential use of nuclear weapons, also citing the risks of radioactive fallout affecting Russian territory:

“Most of the time, winds blow from west to east.”, she noted.

According to Šimonytė, Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure such as power plants, schools and hospitals, aiming to trigger a new wave of refugees to the EU fleeing the lack of public and basic services.

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