Lithuanian Defence Minister Olekas: “We are ready to stop Russia outside our borders”

VILNIUS - The Defence Ministers of Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania recently signed an agreement to set up a joint military brigade, LITPOLUKRBRIG, which will hold its first drills within a few months.
The agreement was signed in Lviv, Ukraine, on June 25 and confirms the new Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian brigade will be comprised of 4,500 servicemen.

Juozas Olekas, the minister of defense of Lithuania, has told The Baltic Times about the main purpose of the new brigade, and tried to dispel any illusion about a lack of Lithuanian military security.
“The main functions of Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian brigade will be to conduct exercises together with the soldiers from these three countries, conduct joint trainings, share their expertise, and maybe participate in some United Nations missions, should all three countries agree and decide to take part together,” Olekas told The Baltic Times.
Olekas emphasized that although Lithuania has supported Ukraine since the very beginning of the conflict in Crimea, Lugansk and Donetsk in 2014, the LITPOLUKRBRIG is not prepared to take part in any military activities in Eastern Ukraine.

He believes the Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian brigade may be an additional form of support, and another way of sharing military expertise from Lithuania and Poland with the Ukrainian army.
At the end of 2014, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and her Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko agreed the supply of arms from Lithuania to Ukraine. Since then, the Ukrainian media has been eagerly awaiting for the first supply. No other European Union member state has provided weapons to Ukraine so far.
“We supply some elements of weaponry as we agreed last year,” said Olekas. “From our point of view, we all need to support Ukraine as it is fighting not only for Ukraine’s independence and freedom, but also for European values.”

Still no specifics

Olekas, however, shied away from any specifics about the quantity or type of arms Lithuania is sending to Ukraine.
“We try to support Ukraine as much as we can, we send humanitarian aid, we send some military equipment, and we send our instructors to help train the Ukrainian military forces,” he added.
“We receive wounded Ukrainian soldiers for rehabilitation in Lithuania, and we open our country’s military schools for Ukrainian soldiers.

“In 2014, we reached the agreement that Ukraine needs to have some elements of armament, and we can provide it.
“We agreed and we have sent what we agreed on. This is our answer. Maybe some time later I can say more.”
Despite the diverse help Lithuania offers for Ukraine, it still does not spend 2 percent of its economy on defense, the minimum of defence spending suggested by NATO.
In 2013, Lithuania was spending only 0.8 percent of its GDP on defense, the second smallest level among NATO countries after Luxembourg.

Since the beginning of Russian aggression in Crimea in 2014, Lithuania’s attitude to defence spending changed remarkably. Unsurprisingly, the defense budget was increased.
In 2016, it plans to raise its military spending from 149 million euros to 574 million, which will make up 1.46 percent of its GDP.
“In 2014, we reached an agreement between Lithuania’s political parties and parliament,” said Olekas. “It stated we should fulfill our obligations to NATO and increase the defense budget to 2 percent.”
“This year we increased the budget by more than half a percent. By 2016, we are planning to increase it further in order to reach 1.46 percent.

2 % on Defence

“According to these trends in increasing the budget, the agreement between the political parties was to reach 2 percent in 2020. However, I think we can reach it earlier.”
The question is, will the increase in defence spending be enough to ensure the security of Lithuania’s citizens? It is a question to which Olekas is sure of the answer: collective defence is the main feature that distinguishes Lithuania in the summer of 2015, from Ukraine in the spring of 2014.
“Of course, when international laws are broken, when there is aggression against towards its neighboring countries like Georgia and Ukraine, Russia has become an additional threat for us.

“But we have our allies and we have NATO’s Joint Task Forces, who are ready to come to our defence.
“From our side, we have also established national high-readiness forces in Lithuania.
“We have the capabilities and we are ready to defend our state. I think, this is the difference between Ukraine and Lithuania. We are ready to stop Russia outside our borders.”