“First of all, Russia does not see itself as a party in the conflict and has insisted that it has not been participating in it, even though more and more evidence shows otherwise, and less and less people doubt this,” Linkevičius told ELTA news agency on the phone from Wales.
According to the head of Lithuania’s diplomacy, if Russia had stopped supplying terrorist groups with weapons, ammunition and personnel, then “the conflict would have ended, there would be no casualties and the situation would normalise”.
“The essence is to acknowledge the reality, but as we are talking about completely different things it is difficult to expect success from such plan and it would hardly bring any practical use,” said Linkevičius.
On Friday, the EU should introduce wider economic sanctions against Russia. Lithuanian foreign minister hopes that talks about ceasefire “have not changed anything”.
According to Linkevičius, ceasefire in itself is beneficial if the supply of weapons or other armed support to terrorist groups is stopped. A ceasefire can be discussed only if it is done. However, so far no signs of this have been witnessed, and Russia does not even admit that it is participating in the conflict. Therefore, talks about a ceasefire are one sided and do not solve the situation.
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