16 April, New York. “Crimea’s annexation and now the destabilization of eastern Ukraine is not about the protection of Russian speaking minorities or alleged Ukraine’s radical extremism. It is about obstructing and preventing the May 25 elections”, - said Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaitė, Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the United Nations, delivering a statement in the United Nations Security Council meeting on the human rights situation in Ukraine.

On 16 April in Vilnius, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius met with the new Apostolic Nuncio to Lithuania, Archbishop Pedro López Quintana. The meeting discussed the countries’ cooperation within international organisations, topics related to international policy and the European Union, as well as the Foreign Minister’s visit to Vatican City this January.

On 15 April in New York, the Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the United Nations, Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaitė and the Permanent Representative of Sierra Leone to the United Nations, Ambassador Vandi Chidi Minah signed a Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between Lithuania and Sierra Leone.

The Foreign Affairs Council meeting on 14 April in Luxembourg, which was also attended by the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius, approved macro-financial assistance of up to € 1 billion to support Ukraine’s economic stabilisation and reforms, and adopted the Regulation on the reduction or elimination of customs duties on Ukrainian goods.

We express strong support to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.   

We condemn actions of the separatists in the Donetsk region and other eastern regions of Ukraine – in Luhansk and Kharkiv. By means of such actions supported by the external forces and provocations it is sought to destabilise the situation in that region and the whole of Ukraine. We support the efforts of the Government of Ukraine to resolve the complicated and unpredictable situation in a peaceful way.