Lithuanian formin urges international community to wake up on Ukraine

VILNIUS – Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis called on the international community to make the right historical decisions and to wake up, as he addressed the UN Security Council last Friday, on the eve of the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.   

"Today we are facing choices that might well define this century, just as the choices in the 1930s defined the previous century," Landsbergis said in his speech to the Council on behalf of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the Czech Republic. 

"Do we continue to appease the aggressor who is patient and meticulous in his attempts to turn everything this organization holds dear into a mockery? Do we once again allow him to escape responsibility for his aggression? Do we continue to feed him with lives and land, misled by our fear of escalation and naïve hopes that this time he will be fully satisfied?" the minister asked rhetorically. 

"For all our sakes, wake up," he said. "If we fail, the rules-based order will crumble."

Lithuania's top diplomat said that the international community's cautious response emboldens Russia.

"If not contained, this Kremlin-driven arc of instability will continue to expand, igniting more conflicts that we are not prepared to counter," Landsbergis warned.

"This war must be won, and won decisively. It is not just Europe’s war, it is a challenge to the international order, which – while imperfect – aims to ensure that law, rather than military might, determines our borders and sovereignty," the minister said.

"This aggressor has no plans to stop... until he is stopped," he added.