Enough of red lines – Lithuanian President on foreign troops in Ukraine
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has supported discussions about possible deployment of foreign troops to Ukraine for exercises.
Source: LRT with reference to Nausėda, reported by European Pravda
Details: "I welcomed the idea of sending missions to Ukrainian territory as an idea, and I think we should discuss it. Of course, it would be best if we all unanimously agreed on the need for this and assessed the intelligence and other information we have very well," Nausėda said.
He also stressed that fear of a possible Kremlin reaction should not be a determining factor in making a common European decision.
"If we start saying that no, Vladimir Putin will not like this or that... we will never make a decision. And that's why I told both the President [Emmanuel Macron] and the media yesterday that we have to stop drawing red lines for ourselves," Nausėda said.
He stressed that by drawing red lines, the West is only helping Putin, "who is beginning to think that we are predictable and that he can control and manipulate us."
Background:
- Earlier, Macron said the deployment of Western troops to Ukraine in the future could not be ruled out, although he stressed that there is currently no consensus among the allies on this issue. France later clarified that the participation of foreign troops in the fighting was out of the question.
- Macron's words provoked a strong reaction from the governments of many allied countries, whose leaders were quick to state that they had no plans to send their military to Ukraine.
- Macron later noted that his resonant words had been carefully considered.
- Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba believes that the discussion between the allies initiated by Macron will "save Europe a lot of time" in realising that more needs to be done to support Ukraine.
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