Lithuania’s Seimas proposes to qualify Russia’s actions in Ukraine as genocide

VILNIUS – The Seimas of Lithuania proposes to qualify Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine as genocide of the Ukrainian nation and calls on international community to continue supplying a broad range of weapons to Kyiv, according to a resolution adopted by the Lithuanian parliament unanimously with 134 votes in favor on Tuesday.

The resolution was adopted in the wake of a virtual address of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the Lithuanian Seimas.

The parliament proposed in its resolution “to qualify war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Russian Federation as genocide of the Ukrainian nation after duly assessing legal circumstances”.

Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen stated while presenting the resolution that Western countries should act decisively and stop “placing human lives and suffering on one pan of the weighing scale and temporary inconveniences of our daily lives on the other pan”.

She also stressed that Western countries should be thankful to Ukraine for ruining the myth about Russia’s military power.

“We are no longer afraid. Not of war as it is unreasonable not to be afraid of war. We are no longer afraid of Russia’s military power as the brave Ukrainian nation has ruined the myth about its invincibility. We must use our work to repay this brave nation for what it has given us and the whole of Europe,” Cmilyte-Nielsen said.