Lithuanian leaders congratulated Ukraine on its Independence Day, wishing victory and successful integration into “the family of the European Union and NATO”.
“As you mark this meaningful day at such a tense time with Russia’s war ongoing, I wish you, your country and all its people the utmost strength and unity. Ukraine will triumph,” President Gitanas Nausėda wrote in message of congratulations to his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Wednesday.
“Lithuania has always been and will always be with you,” he said.
Nausėda noted that the people of Lithuania know what it is like to live “in the neighbourhood of an aggressor” and are “deeply supportive of Ukraine and its people who have shown extraordinary courage and determination”, his office said in a press release.
He assured Zelensky that Lithuania will continue to fully support Ukraine with military, humanitarian, financial and expert assistance, it said.
“We will continue to mobilise our partners in the democratic international community to provide uninterrupted, lasting, and full support for Ukraine and to increase pressure on the aggressor. We will stand with Ukraine until victory,” the Lithuanian president said.
“With the entire international community, we are ready to support the implementation of Ukraine’s reconstruction plan,” he added.
Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, the speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, “congratulated the Ukrainian parliament and extended the wishes of endurance and agreement in working for the benefit of the nation, ending brutal aggression, and restoring the territorial integrity of the country”, her office said in a press release.
The speaker noted that “Ukrainians are fighting not only for their freedom, but also for the freedom and sovereignty of Europe as a whole”.
“We believe in the unity and determination of your nation to achieve the final victory and establish itself in the family of the European Union and NATO. We have been walking and will walk this path alongside you,” she said.
Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said in her message of congratulations that this year’s Independence Day has “a special meaning” for Ukrainians “after six months of heroic defense efforts against a new wave of Russian aggression”.
“Freedom is celebrated in Kyiv today only thanks to brave and self-sacrificing people,” she said. “This battle shows to the entire civilized world that it is possible to resist a much larger military power when you are on the side of truth and justice.”
The aggressor expects that the Western countries supporting Ukraine’s independence “will fall into fatigue, lose their resolve, perhaps play against each other and support the Ukrainians only through words but not deeds”, but the last six months have shown that this will not happen, according to Šimonytė.
“Even if there were those who doubted our unity and solidarity, the last six months proved them wrong,” she said. “Let us continue like this so that the victory of Ukraine, and of all of us, dawn as soon as possible.”
Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union on August 24 ,1991, after a failed putsch in Moscow.
Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and launched a military invasion of its neighbour on February 24, 2022.
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