Foreign Ministry's statement on Russia’s decision to close Lithuania's Consulate General in St. Petersburg
Today, on 21 April, the Acting Head of the Embassy of Lithuania in Moscow Virginija Umbrasienė was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and informed about Russia’s decision to withdraw its consent to the functioning of the Consulate General of Lithuania in St. Petersburg. All employees of the Consulate General and their family members must leave Russia's territory within 15 days.
Lithuania's representative was informed that Russia had taken this decision in response to Lithuania's decision of 4 April to send away the Head of the Russian Embassy in Vilnius and the staff of the Russian Consulate General in Klaipėda.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania considers this action by Russia as unjustified. It just demonstrates Russia’s further political and diplomatic self-isolation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalls that the Lithuanian Government took the decision to close the Russian Consulate General in Klaipėda in response to the continuing brutal military aggression against a sovereign state of Ukraine, the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine, as well as taking into account the generally destructive role of the Russian diplomatic service vis-à-vis Ukraine.
Lithuania continues to express its full solidarity with Ukraine and the people of Ukraine, who are facing an unprecedented act of aggression by Russia, and condemns in the strongest terms the atrocities perpetrated by Russian armed forces in the occupied Ukrainian cities. Lithuania supports all measures to hold Russia accountable for its violations of human rights and the international humanitarian law in Ukraine.
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