News

On 27 August, a representative of the Embassy of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Lithuania was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and handed a note of strong protest over the Russian armed forces’ ongoing massive shelling of Ukrainian territory, which is killing and injuring civilians and destroying residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.

Last week alone, at least several Russian airstrikes against Ukraine were recorded that claimed the lives of dozens of civilians—on 21 August, 16 people were killed in an attack on a shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih, on the night from 19 to 20 August, 17 civilians lost their lives in Kyiv and its surroundings due to Russian actions, while on 18 August, a Russian missile strike on the on Pechenihy village in the Kharkiv region claimed 10 lives. Residential buildings, a children’s hospital, an educational institution, logistics centers—including Red Cross facilities—and other civilian infrastructure were destroyed. The note also draws attention to the so-called “human safari” carried out by Russian forces in Ukraine’s frontline regions, in which civilians are cynically targeted with First-Person View (FPV) drones.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemns the relentless and unjustifiable attacks by Russia's military forces against civilians and infrastructure. It emphasizes that these acts constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, which carry no statute of limitations.

The Republic of Lithuania insistently demands that the Russian Federation immediately cease its military aggression against Ukraine and its war crimes, withdraw its occupying forces from the entire internationally recognized sovereign territory of Ukraine, and compensate Ukraine for the damage caused by Russia’s aggression.