Lithuanian prosecutors are looking into reports that a Lithuanian man is claiming on social media that he is fighting on the Russian side against Ukraine.
The move is part of a separate pre-trial investigation launched in 2022 into Moscow’s aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
“This information is being verified and looked into as part of the investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine,” Rita Stundienė, spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General’s Office, told BNS Monday.
On Sunday, popular vlogger and journalist Skirmantas Malinauskas shared a video on his Youtube channel in which he said that Lithuanian Kęstutis Kvietkus is fighting on the Russian side. In his words, Kvietkus is “a criminal from Jurbarkas with several prior convictions”.
“Now he has gone to fight and kill Ukrainians, to fight on the occupiers’ side,” Malinauskas said in the video.
Kvietkus has shared a number of videos on his account of himself in trenches and firing a grenade launcher. However, BNS has not been able to independently verify their authenticity.
After Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, the Lithuanian Prosecutor General’s Office opened a pre-trial investigation into internationally prohibited treatment of people, aggression and prohibited acts of war.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, who visited Vilnius in April 2023, said that Ukrainian law enforcement authorities were investigating 77,000 cases of Russian war crimes in the country.
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