News

On 25 August in Vilnius, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Mantvydas Bekešius met with Lithuania’s Honorary Consul in Crimea Sergei Petrichenko and assured him that Lithuania would always respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and would never recognise the annexation of Crimea.

The Foreign Vice-Minister congratulated Lithuania’s Honorary Consul on the 25th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence and voiced strong support for Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty.

“Lithuania does not recognize the illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by Russia, thus it is very important for us to maintain your status as Lithuania’s Honorary Consul in Crimea, Ukraine, also in the future,” said Mr Bekešius.

Lithuania’s Foreign Vice-Minister noted that Lithuania did not intend to follow an example of some countries, which gave up their Honorary Consuls in Crimea. Bekešius emphasized that Petrichenko’s experience that had been gained in Crimea and his connections would help Lithuania to maintain cultural ties with Ukrainian citizens who lived there.

Petrichenko was appointed as Lithuania’s Honorary Consul in Simferopol in southern Ukraine in 2005. He actively worked to expand bilateral trade in Crimea, cooperated closely with the Embassy of Lithuania in Ukraine and helped to organize cultural events.

In March 2014, Petrichenko and his family moved to Dnipro city, where he continues his activities as the Honorary Consul of Lithuania in Crimea.

Currently, there are ten Lithuanian Honorary Consuls in Ukraine who work in the following cities: Bila Tserkva, Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnipro, Lviv, Odessa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Simferopol (with temporary headquarters in Dnipro), Uzhorod and Zhytomyr.