Lithuania may supply weapons to Ukraine as part of military aid it promised to help Kyiv fight pro-Russian separatists, the Lithuanian Defence Minister Juozas Olekas told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
“A discussion was held in the parliament, and there is a shared idea that we should assist Ukraine with weapons and munition. We should have a clear understanding of what is going on. When the USSR committed aggression against us, several countries supplied us not only with humanitarian help, but also with weapons and munition. Now Ukraine has found itself in a similar situation, and we can support it. I believe we can assist it with ‘elements of military equipment’, as President Poroshenko said. We should discuss everything. All things should be on the table,” the Lithuanian Defence Minister who had recently come back from Kyiv stressed.
“Firstly, I would like to say that we strongly support Ukrainians in this situation. I was deeply impressed by what I saw at the Central Military Hospital in Kyiv. We saw injured young men, men with their limbs taken off. In my opinion, we should provide more assistance to them and start negotiations about supplies of weapons and munition. When discussing it with the Ukrainian side and we’ve agreed that they will check what they need and we will check what we can send them, and then we will find a final conclusion – what we can do, how we can support. At the same time, we should lend aid in treatment of the wounded, send humanitarian aid and medical equipment,” Mr Olekas added.
