He stressed that political and military support by European and world democracies was crucial for Ukraine at this time, the presidential office said in a press release.
“With the outbreak of a large-scale military offensive in the Donbas region, rapid and effective delivery of weaponry to Ukraine could become a decisive factor in this war. We no longer have time to hesitate, we must act decisively and quickly,” the press release quoted Nauseda as saying.
The Lithuanian president and the German minister discussed reinforcement of NATO’s eastern flank.
Nauseda stated that NATO’s enhanced forward presence battalion should be expanded to a brigade-sized unit, air policing should be upgraded to air and missile defense, and forward presence should be switched to forward defense. He also called to strengthen the so-called Suwałki Corridor.
He thanked Germany for leading NATO forward presence battlegroup in Lithuania and for its contribution to the security of the Baltic region and expressed his expectation that more German troops would be deployed to Lithuania in the near future.
The Lithuanian president also underlined that pressure by Western countries on Russia must be further increased by tightening sanctions in energy, finance, trade, and other sectors.
According to him, sanctions should also be imposed on Belarus, which is participating as a party to Russia’s war against Ukraine and allows the aggressor to deploy its troops in its territory.
Nauseda and the German foreign minister also discussed the prospects for Ukraine’s European integration.
According to the Lithuanian president, following Ukraine’s completion of the EU accession questionnaire this week, it is necessary to speed up the process of granting Ukraine EU candidate status.