Lithuania poised to train Ukrainian forces amid Russian assaults

The Prime Minister of Lithuania has stated that she has the parliament's backing to deploy training units in Ukraine but is awaiting a formal request from Kyiv, dismissing potential Russian threats.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Ingrida Šimonytė shared that she secured parliamentary consent to send Lithuanian troops to Ukraine for training. However, Kyiv has not yet made such a request.

She acknowledged the likelihood of Russia perceiving this move as a provocation but remarked, "If we just thought about the Russian response, then we could not send anything." She further expressed, "Every second week you hear that somebody will be nuked," emphasizing her point.

Šimonytė also questioned the likelihood of weapon use, highlighting the risk of radioactive fallout, which would impact Russia as well. "Most of the time the winds blow from west to east," she noted, pointing out the strategic implications.

Šimonytė pointed out that Russia is escalating its assaults on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, targeting facilities like power plants, schools, and hospitals to incite a new exodus from Ukraine.

Since the conflict began in early 2022, over 4.2 million Ukrainian refugees have sought shelter in EU countries, primarily during the winter and spring of the first war year. Šimonytė assured that Lithuania has no plans to deport Ukrainians of conscription age back to Ukraine nor to seek them out domestically.