Lithuania’s Defence Ministry said there were no troops currently deployed to Ukraine. This follows a Saturday report by the New York Times, claiming that special forces from Lithuania and other NATO member states are inside the war-torn country.
“The training mission in Ukraine has been temporarily suspended by mutual agreement of the partner countries, even before the Russian invasion began,” the Lithuanian Defence Ministry said in a statement sent to LRT.lt.
“Currently, no troops from the Lithuanian Armed Forces are present in the territory of Ukraine and no joint tasks and operations are being carried out,” it said.
On Saturday, the New York Times reported that special forces from NATO member states, including Lithuania, are “providing weapons, intelligence and training” inside Ukraine.
Once the United States pulled out its special forces from Ukraine, “commandos” from countries including Lithuania have “either remained or have gone in and out of the country since then, training and advising Ukrainian troops and providing an on-the-ground conduit for weapons and other aid”, three US officials told the NYT.
The commandos are not on the frontlines, they said.
Lithuanian troops had been training the Ukrainian armed forces since 2014, including on the use of Stinger anti-aircraft weapons. The advanced systems were delivered to Kyiv just days before the February 24 invasion.
Read more: Ukraine downs 8 targets with Lithuanian-supplied Stingers – defence minister
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