Lithuanian president in Munich: To betray Ukraine would mean to betray ourselves

“There are lots of speculations today about what Angela Merkel was talking to Putin. (…) I want to say very clearly: I trust and believe that Angela Merkel has never betrayed anyone. She always looks for solutions and she’s never selling anybody because to betray Ukraine and the Ukrainian people today will mean that we’re betraying ourselves. Because after Ukraine, we will be next,” she said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on Friday discussed an initiative for peace in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking about the situation in the region, Grybauskaitė said that an aggressor “who is organizing the war, directly participates in the war, supplies military equipment to the war and behaves itself as a terrorist” is a threat not only to Ukraine, but also to Lithuania. She was referring to the military forces in the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad and flights by Russian aircraft.

The president said that these are attempts to frighten Lithuania into not supporting Ukraine, but underlined that Lithuania is not afraid.

“Let’s give a chance to the efforts, but let’s also understand with whom we’re dealing and be ready — be ready to support Ukraine with all means necessary to defend, not to attack, but to defend its own people and its own territory. And Lithuania is already doing this. And Lithuania is not engaging in discussion how to help Ukraine. We’re helping Ukraine with all means available to Lithuania,” she said.

The Munich Security Conference is an annual international security event aimed at promoting discussions on current and future security challenges. This year’s conference focuses on the war in Eastern Ukraine and the fight against the ISIS group in Iraq and Syria.