The Lithuanian President declares a state of emergency. His country borders on the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
(Photo: imago images/Ukrinform)
Stockholm The foreign ministers of the three Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have strongly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for tough sanctions. “All of us across the international community must condemn it in the strongest possible terms and impose the toughest sanctions, including Russia’s decoupling from Swift,” said Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maris Liimets, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics and his Lithuanian counterpart Gabrielius Landsbergis. Russia must be “politically isolated”. Swift is a major payment service provider that handles international transactions.
In Lithuania, President Gitanas Nauseda announced the imposition of a state of emergency. He will sign a corresponding decree, which is to be passed by Parliament in an extraordinary session later today.
Lithuania borders Russia via Kaliningrad and shares a border with Belarus. Russia has around 30,000 soldiers stationed there. Due to the situation in Ukraine, the three Baltic countries are preparing for refugees from Ukraine.
All three Baltic foreign ministers are currently on a visit to Ukraine. They originally wanted to visit the Ukrainian-Russian border. Due to the current situation, the three Baltic foreign ministers will leave Ukraine by land.
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But before that, they underlined their solidarity with Ukraine in a joint statement. “Dear Ukrainian friends, we are in your historic capital, Kiev, we support you and we will do everything possible to ensure that the attacker pays the highest possible price. Slava Ukraini,” they wrote. “Slava Ukraini” means “Glory of Ukraine”.
Approval from the federal government for the delivery of East German howitzers is pending
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been demanding a tougher approach towards Russia for weeks. Fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine had grown steadily in the Baltic states in recent weeks. Memories of the Soviet occupation of the three countries were revived. After gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, all three countries joined the European Union and NATO.
The countries had spoken out in favor of arms deliveries to Ukraine at an early stage. “We consider it very important to help Ukraine in any way we can,” said Prime Minister Kaja Kallas. Your country wants to supply arms and ammunition to Ukraine. This also includes howitzers from GDR stocks.
For a delivery to the Ukraine, however, Estonia needs the consent of Germany, which had initially delivered the artillery pieces to Finland. Finland then passed them on to Estonia. The request is still being examined in Berlin, while Finland gave its approval for the transfer to Ukraine on Thursday morning.
More: EU announces toughest sanctions package in history