Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has accused the country’s institutions of the failure to take more decisive action on bringing Lithuanians stranded in Israel back home.
“I find it a bit strange that we are still discussing the ways and means of transporting people out of the conflict zone today, on the third day. Poland is already doing it in real terms, so we have to discuss and actually help people,” Nausėda told reporters on Monday.
“That is why I am going to call Polish President Duda today to see what their possibilities are, whether they could provide enough space on their planes for Lithuanian citizens. Our institutions just need to stop talking and start doing their job for once,” the president said.
Asked about the possibility of using Lithuania’s Spartan military aircraft to bring back people from Israel, the president said they would not be the most suitable option because of their low capacity and the distance they could fly without stopovers.
“We have much more convenient alternatives, let’s use them. If that proves insufficient, all means will be good, including the Spartan,” he said.
Ready to help
If necessary, Warsaw is ready to help bring Lithuanians back from Israel with its military aircraft, Gitanas Nausėda said after talking with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda later on Monday.
The two leaders discussed the security situation in the region following the attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas over the weekend.
“According to the president, if the need arises, Poland is ready to support the return of our citizens to Lithuania with its own air force flights,” the President's Office said.
For his part, Nausėda thanked Duda for his “quick reaction and readiness to help the Lithuanian people to return to their homeland from war-torn Israel”.
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