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“I don’t think that option (invasion – BNS) can be rejected,” G. Landsbergis told reporters at Vilnius airport.
He said the popularity of the Russian president had been declining recently, so the “shooting” on the border with Ukraine could be seen as an attempt to “mobilize the electorate.”
Mr. Landsbergis pays a solidarity visit together with the Foreign Ministers of Latvia and Estonia, Edgars Rinkevičius and Eva Marija Lymets.
In Kiev, the heads of Baltic diplomacy will meet with the leaders of Ukraine and other high-ranking officials.
Presidency: the situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border recalls the situation before the capture of Crimea
The warming situation on the border between Russia and Ukraine is worrying because it recalls the situation before Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, says the presidential adviser.
“A month ago, there were some signs that the situation on the Ukraine-Russia border is heating up, but it has not been as it is today. And to this day, we are witnessing a great pull of the Russian military towards Ukraine’s borders, an unusually great one, ”Asta Skaisgirytė, senior adviser to the president, told LRT Radio on Thursday.
According to her, this worries not only Lithuania, but also the United States and other NATO allies.
“We are watching this situation very closely, with great anxiety, I will not hide it, because we are seeing something like what happened in 2014, before Russia captured Crimea and began military action in Donbas,” he said.
Russian forces mobilized near the Ukrainian border have alarmed the West in recent days. According to the United States, the number of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine and in occupied Crimea is the highest since 2014, when war broke out with Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine following the annexation of the Crimean peninsula.
Moscow has said it has deployed troops along its western border for the exercise, in response to the threat of NATO action.
