While on visit in Kyiv, Minister of National Defence Laurynas Kasčiūnas met with Minister of Defence of Ukraine Rustem Umerov. The counterparts discussed Ukraine’s most pressing issues of today: shortage of ammunition and weaponry, military and financial assistance, the bilateral security agreement between Lithuania and Ukraine planned to be concluded.
“Our strategic goal is to ensure the continuity of assistance to Ukraine. Minister R. Umerov and I have discussed military assistance to Ukraine that they are in the most urgent need of right now. Another welcome piece of news today is Ukraine’s signature of the Protocol of Intent to form the Demining Coalition under the leadership of Lithuania and Iceland. It has been also agreed to establish a bilateral Defence Industry Council, a platform for exchange of military technology advance experience,” said L. Kasčiūnas after the meeting with T. Umerov.
Other themes addressed at the meeting were the shortage of ammunition and the necessity to stimulate defence industry and adherence to multilateral initiatives with production and procurement of weaponry and ammunition or by stepping up the scope of its production. Ministers touched upon Lithuania’s ambition to take forward the drone and drone jamming equipment production: a very relevant decision to the Ukrainian side as well. The Ukrainians could contribute to par of the technologies in drone and anti-drone production and to share experience in the equipment operation on the battlefield.
Another topic addressed at the meeting was Lithuania’s decision to join the Latvian-led Drone Coalition: drones are planned to be purchased from Lithuanian manufacturers for transferring to Ukraine in the framework. Lithuania has decided to also contribute EUR 35 million in adherence to the Czech-proposed multilateral initiative for acquiring ammunition for Ukraine.
Minister L. Kasčiūnas praised the compromise reached at the European Union on the EUR 5 billion Ukraine Assistance Fund. However, similar amounts are needed ion a yearly basis.
Ministers also discussed military personnel training and medical rehabilitation as well. It has been announced three days ago that Lithuania would contribute to installation and service development of three rehabilitation centers in Lviv, Dnipro and Zhytomyr. The effort will be financed with approx. EUR 15 million from the Lithuanian Development Cooperation Fund and MoD financial assets. Lithuania will aim to attract other international donors to this initiative as well.
This year Lithuania has transferred 155mm ammunition, M577 armored personnel carriers, drone-jamming systems, winter gear and tens of thousands sets of warm clothing, thousands of rounds for and Carl Gustaf anti-tank recoilless rifle and RISE-1 remote initiation system sets.
The assistance Lithuania renders to Ukraine is sustained and long-term and amounts to a billion euros already. The military assistance so far has reached approx. EUR 610 million. This year alone has seen approx. EUR 84 million worth of assistance to Ukraine, a dynamic aimed to become the norm.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine
