Lithuania’s incoming prime minister, Inga Ruginienė, says she does not yet have a clear stance on whether the country should send troops to a potential peacekeeping mission in Ukraine.
“I must admit, I don’t have such a clear position that I could say, ‘yes, yes, yes, I strongly support it’,” the Social Democrat told the news portal 15min.lt in an interview.
Ruginienė said she has not yet discussed the matter with Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė. The minister has previously said Lithuania has calculated how many troops it could send to Ukraine, but stressed that Russia would first need to agree to a ceasefire.
“I will want to return to this and talk it over with the Defence Ministry community, because it may be that I don’t know certain facts or arguments, simply because I haven’t had the chance to engage yet,” Ruginienė said.
Last week, President Gitanas Nausėda said Lithuania was prepared to support a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, though it may not necessarily require sending troops. His adviser, Dainius Žikevičius, cited Lithuania’s deployments to Afghanistan – typically up to several hundred troops – as a benchmark for what participation could look like.
Ukraine’s European allies are seeking to form peacekeeping forces for Ukraine under the so-called “coalition of the willing”, which includes about 30 countries such as EU member states, the UK, Japan and Australia.
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