No talks with Moscow possible in current situation – Lithuanian adviser

VILNIUS - Asta Skaisgiryte, chief foreign policy adviser to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, says she doesn’t see any possibility to sit down at the negotiating table with Russia right now.

"At the moment, it’s not a situation where we could talk with Moscow. To talk with Moscow, Moscow needs to make certain steps to show that the Kremlin has realized that it made a mistake by getting involved in this war and that it would withdraw its troops from Ukraine in order to rectify it," Skaisgiryte told the Ziniu Radijas news radio on Tuesday.

"Lithuania is, first of all, talking with Ukraine. I cannot see getting back to talks without the change in the existing current circumstances," she noted.

Last Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Russian President Vladimir Putin had their first phone conversation time since mid-September. Scholz's office said the hour-long conversation focused on Russia's war against Ukraine, which has been going on since February, and its consequences.

The German chancellor also called on the Russian president to find a diplomatic solution as soon as possible, including the withdrawal of Russian troops.

"We have to understand that President Gitanas Nauseda said that if we talk about negotiations with Russia, well, peace negotiations, such negotiations can only take place on Ukrainian terms and under the Ukrainian timeframe," the adviser said.