News

On 13 June, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius and Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya had a telephone conversation on the situation in Ukraine and efforts to resolve the situation through dialogue. According to the Foreign Ministers, if there is no positive change, it will be necessary to impose strict targeted sanctions again.

L.Linkevičius was informed that the situation in Ukraine had not been normalised so far and the promise to strengthen control of the Ukrainian-Russian border had not been kept.

“Ukraine’s Foreign Minister reported that the contact group, consisting of representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), had prepared proposals; however, there was no reaction from Moscow. Some sections of the state border are controlled by armed terrorist group, well-armed people with anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons can enter the Donetsk and Luhansk regions without any obstacles,” L.Linkevičius said.

The Foreign Ministers also noted that three tanks had invaded Ukraine’s territory on 12 June, the terrorist groups were uncontrollably committing acts of violence, attacking the Ukrainian military forces, shooting airplanes and using the human shield – they often attacked from residential areas, apartment buildings. So far nothing is known about the eight kidnapped OSCE observers.

“All of this can ruin every negotiating effort. Russia claims that the ongoing conflict is Ukraine’s domestic affair can only further complicate the situation,” L.Linkevičius underlined.