Lithuania remains open to the deployment of ground troops in Ukraine as part of training missions for Ukrainian soldiers, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said on Wednesday.
In a story published in the Financial Times the Lithuanian leader confirmed her previously expressed openness to this idea.
She said her country, which is a member of both NATO and the European Union, is prepared to send soldiers on training missions to Ukraine. There is parliamentary authorization to do so, but Kiev has not yet asked for it, she said.
Lithuania is one of the most determined supporters of Ukraine, which has been defending itself against a full-scale Russian invasion more than two years. The Baltic state had previously expressed its openness to French President Emmanuel Macron’s ideas about the deployment of Western ground troops in Ukraine. However, other states – including Germany – staunchly reject the idea.
Šimonytė conceded that Russia would view the deployment of troops in Ukraine as a provocation, but she does not think Moscow would actually use nuclear weapons, despite a nuclear weapons exercise announced by Moscow on Monday.
“If we just thought about the Russian response, then we could not send anything. Every second week you hear that somebody will be nuked,” she was quoted as saying in the report.
Šimonytė also accused Russia of stepping up its attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. This was aimed at wearing down the population and provoking further refugee movements from Ukraine, she said.