Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has said European countries and the US are using “unacceptable double standards” in their different approach to providing aid to Israel and Ukraine.
“It is unacceptable that we […] apply double standards. Our aid to Israel certainly does not and should not compete with our attention to Ukraine,” Nausėda told Lithuanian reporters in Brussels on Wednesday.
“I imagine that if we are principled and really stand for democratic values, we should support both [countries], and not calculate – we give this much to one and that much to the other,” he added.
The president made his remarks as Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky called on allies to show the same unity towards Ukraine as the West showed after the Iranian attack on Israel.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba specifically mentioned that Kyiv would greatly benefit from the same shield against air strikes.
Iran over the weekend launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel in retaliation for a deadly April 1 strike on Tehran’s consulate in Damascus.
Israel’s military said it intercepted 99 percent of the aerial threats with the help of the United States and other allies, and that the overnight attack caused only minor damage.
“After all, our inability to deliver weapons and, above all, air defence systems costs lives every day,” Nausėda continued in Brussels.
“I am convinced that we are losing focus on Ukraine,” he said.
Zelensky has been calling on the West to send air defence systems to his country for some time now, as Russia has stepped up shelling of Ukraine with missiles and drones in recent weeks.
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