Lithuania is ready to continue and step up its expert support to Ukraine, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte has said.
“It is necessary to use this moment of mobilisation and political will for the decisive implementation of reforms, and Lithuania is ready to continue and strengthen the expert support it is already providing,” she said in a press release.
According to the prime minister, Lithuania is well aware of Ukraine’s financial needs.
“We are contributing to the international community’s efforts and providing financial assistance to Ukraine both by joining the instruments created by international institutions and on a bilateral basis,” she said.
Simonyte met with her Ukrainian counterpart Denys Shmyhal on the sidelines of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in the Swiss city of Lugano on July 4.
The two prime ministers discussed the course of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the impact of the war on Ukraine’s economy and international trade, possibilities for shipping Ukrainian grain out of the country, the next steps after the granting of EU candidate status to Ukraine and Lithuania’s support for Ukraine in meeting its immediate needs and carrying out its European integration reforms.
Lithuanian experts have contributed to the preparation of Ukraine’s reconstruction plan presented in Lugano.
Lithuania has so far provided more than 500 million euros worth of assistance to Ukraine, including the hosting of war refugees.
Lithuania will soon transfer a bilateral grant of 2 million euros to Ukraine as humanitarian aid for Ukrainians who have fled from the war zones to the western part of the country, according to the press release.
Lithuania will provide the National Bank of Ukraine with additional 10 million euros for urgent reconstruction works, Simonyte said.
“We need to continue and accelerate our military, humanitarian and financial assistance to help Ukraine win this war faster. Lithuania’s bilateral aid to Ukraine and support for refugees from Ukraine in our country exceed half a billion euros. Lithuania will transfer additional 10 million euros to the National Bank of Ukraine for immediate reconstruction works,” the Lithuanian prime minister told the conference on July 5.
She suggested that Russian assets frozen under sanctions should be used for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
“We cannot resurrect the people killed by Russia, but we have a real opportunity to make the aggressors pay reparations. As this money is kept in our banks and docked at our piers,” Simonyte was quoted in a statement released by the government press service. “I call on the European Union and all non-EU countries that have imposed sanctions to create a legal mechanism to seize assets and to make the sanctions really effective.” (LRT/Business World Magazine)