Lithuania will get back to the issue of handing over its PzH 2000 German howitzers to Ukraine later, once the government receives an assessment from the military leadership on the possible impact of such a decision, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda says.
The issue was not on the agenda of the National Defence Council’s meeting on September 26, but “we just agreed to come back to it later”, the president said.
“First, a very detailed military justification has to be prepared, an assessment from the military side of how this could affect the plans and prospects of our military and the ability of our forces to carry out certain operations,” Nauseda said.
“Once we receive that military advice, we will still strategically and politically assess whether such a decision is appropriate and make a decision,” he added.
One of the factors, he said, in deciding on the transfer of howitzers would be whether Lithuania would have alternatives to replace these weapons and what would be a time frame to do so, Nauseda underlined.
Citing three sources, the news website 15min.lt reported on September 26 that Kyiv had asked Vilnius to share some of its modern weapons, including German Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzers, a Norwegian NASAMS air defence system and more American M113 armored vehicles.
Critics argue that the transfer of these howitzers would undermine Lithuania’s recently acquired artillery capability.
Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said on September 26 that Lithuania was not considering transferring these howitzers to Ukraine, calling the suggestions rumours and hearsay. (LRT/Business World Magazine)