Lithuania ready to deploy ground troops to Ukraine - Landsbergis

Lithuania is ready to join the French and German initiatives to send troops to Ukraine and transfer elements of the air defense system to contribute to covering Kyiv’s needs.

This was stated by the head of the Foreign Ministry of Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis, who spoke on Friday at the doorstep of the informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We have French initiative, you know, for training or sending troops to Ukraine. Again, Lithuania clearly indicates that we are ready. And then it's German, and then again, we indicate that we are ready to join with our radar systems that we are going to add are going to complement the equipment that's being sent by Germany to Ukraine," Landsbergis noted.

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The Lithuanian minister also emphasized that NATO should demonstrate all seriousness of its intentions regarding further support to Ukraine and the strategic directions of its development, including in the context of accepting new members to the Alliance.

It must be clear “whether we as an alliance are serious about quite a lot of things,” the minister said. “I was serious about assisting Ukraine to win this war. I was serious to deter Russia. So that's Russia is had strategic dilemmas if it continues further in Ukraine, but also if it continues with its hybrid activities in Europe and in NATO.”

According to the top diplomat, until now the Alliance has been good at "good words and making promises", and now it's time to implement them. He added that it is not just about the countries waiting for the allies' promises to be fulfilled, but also about the credibility of NATO itself.

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"On the 75th anniversary, we assure you of the seriousness of our intentions: we can win, we can scare and we can increase the number of Alliance members. And this is my hope for today's meeting and the NATO summit," Landsbergis stated.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Lithuania has trained 2,900 Ukrainian recruits throughout 2023, and in 2024 it plans to train another 3,500 Ukrainian soldiers.