The group says in a statement that their aim is to raise and support initiatives for restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
“We strive for the creation of the Group of Friends of Ukrainian Crimea in Lithuania to provide an incentive for similar initiatives in other Western countries,” MP Laurynas Kasčiūnas, one of the initiators, was quoted as saying in the statement.
The group’s members include ten parliamentarians, prominent journalists Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė, Tomas Dapkus and Vladimiras Laučius, and political scientists and historians.
Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014 following the ouster in Kiev of the Moscow-supported president Viktor Yanukovych.