“I can say that our representatives will definitely not take part in military parades held by the Russian Federation,” the minister told BNS.
“At a time when Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine continues, we don’t think that participation in military parades is the appropriate way to show respect, even if it is to war veterans,” he added.
According to Linkevičius, Remigijus Motuzas, Lithuania’s ambassador to Moscow, will pay tribute to the victims of World War Two on May 8.
Lithuania has not attended the May 9 parade in Moscow’s Red Square since 2014 when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Last year, it was the only EU member country whose representative was not present at the parade.
Lithuania stayed occupied by the Soviet Union after World War Two. Some 275,000 people were deported from Lithuania to labour camps in Siberia and exiled between 1940 and 1952 and over 20,000 people were killed during the post-war guerilla resistance movement.
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