Lithuania: Ukraine needs real security guarantees with nuclear deterrence and Russia's responsibility
Ukraine needs reliable security guarantees, which should be based on nuclear deterrence. This was stated by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. It is reported by The Public with reference to DW.
According to the Lithuanian minister, Ukraine's membership in the European Union is an important component of security, as is the activity of the coalition of the willing. At the same time, he emphasised that given that Russia is a nuclear power and aggressor, only the guarantees provided by a nuclear power with an extended nuclear deterrent can be trusted.
Budris emphasised that alternative security formats will not work. He warned against repeating the Budapest Memorandum scenario and said that Ukraine needs guarantees equal to Article Five of the North Atlantic Treaty. According to him, Russia's nuclear blackmail in 2022 and threats to use tactical nuclear weapons have shown that it is dangerous to rely on conventional deterrence alone.
The minister also drew attention to the issue of Russia's responsibility for the aggression. Speaking at a diplomatic conference in The Hague, Budris said that the impunity of the Soviet Union, and later Russia, for the occupation of the Baltic states in the 1940s was one of the factors behind the Kremlin's new wars.
Lithuania has signed a convention to establish a compensation commission to determine reparations to Ukraine. According to Budris, the lack of reparations for the occupation of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia contributed to Russia's aggression against Georgia in 2008 and against Ukraine in 2014 and 2022.
The Minister stressed that the reparations mechanism for Ukraine should send a clear signal to Russia about the inevitability of responsibility and the impossibility of legitimising aggression.
