Baltic foreign ministers to visit Ukraine this week

RIGA – The foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will travel to Ukraine this week, officials said on Monday.

The visit is to "express solidarity and support for Ukraine in its struggle for independence and territorial integrity," Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said on Twitter.

His Lithuanian counterpart Gabrielius Landsbergis said: "If there is one place where EU politicians should be now -- it's with our Ukrainian friends."

They are expected to begin their visit on Wednesday or Thursday and stay until Friday, officials said.

The Baltic states have all sent weapons to Kyiv in recent weeks.

They have advocated a strong response from NATO against Russia's massive military build-up around Ukraine and have called for other NATO countries to send reinforcements to the Baltics.

Along with its request that Ukraine not be allowed to join NATO, Russia has set out a list of security demands including that additional NATO forces in the alliance's eastern members be withdrawn.