VILNIUS – Securing an end to the fighting in Ukraine must take place with Kyiv's full involvement and come with more defense spending by regional countries to avoid any future Russian aggression, according to Lithuania's president.
Gitanas Nausėda, the president of the Baltic coastal nation, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that a settlement negotiated without proper deterrent measures would allow Russia to consolidate its forces and prepare for further aggression in the region.
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Nausėda said that even when a ceasefire is reached in Ukraine, “you cannot believe that the intentions of Russia will be just to stop and do nothing.”
“They will use this break in order to consolidate, to strengthen the military capabilities and to strike again in the future,” he told the AP in Vilnius. "And then the main question is, what will be the next target of Russia? Ukraine, maybe. Baltic countries, maybe.”
Lithuania, which was occupied by the Soviet Union until 1990, is increasingly worried about the ongoing brutal war in Ukraine and the aggression of its neighbor Russia.
Its geographical position — bordering Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave to the west and Moscow’s proxy Belarus to the east — make it vulnerable to a potential broader conflict launched from the Kremlin even after an eventual end to the war, Nausėda said.
“You can never feel safe living in this part of the world, because we have this neighbor, and we will still have it after one hundred or two hundred years,” Nausėda said of Russia. “You always have the threat from the East, and you must be aware and take all the necessary precautionary measures in order not to be attacked.”
“This is not individual country-by-country conflict," he added. "This is a challenge of Putin towards NATO."
‘Unacceptable’ if ceasefire plans exclude Kyiv
The country recently became the first member of the NATO military alliance to commit to raising its defense spending to at least 5% of its overall national economic output, as called for by U.S. President Donald Trump.
A longtime critic of NATO countries that do not spend more on defense, Trump has threatened he would not defend alliance members that fail to meet defense spending goals. While some European countries have signaled upping their spending to Trump’s desired 5% of GDP would be an economic burden, other nations on the alliance’s eastern flank, including Lithuania, have greeted the proposal as a necessity.
Before Trump took office earlier this month, questions over how he would engage with the war in Ukraine loomed over European countries as some speculated he would roll back the crucial military aid provided by the administration of President Joe Biden. But after his inauguration, Trump threatened to impose sanctions and tariffs on Moscow, and urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to “settle now and stop this ridiculous war.”
Nausėda said the new U.S. administration must ensure that Kyiv is fully involved in negotiations to end the fighting, and that a resolution to the conflict should not be drawn up bilaterally between Moscow and Washington.
“It would be unacceptable if the peace would be set behind the doors and without the involvement of Ukraine," he said. “Ukraine paid a very high price in this war. Ukraine lost many human lives. Infrastructure, facilities and houses are destroyed. The Ukrainian people deserve the right to set the conditions of this peace.”
“I think that President Donald Trump understands that: no peace negotiations without Ukraine,” he added.
Suspicions over damaged undersea cables
Another security concern facing Lithuania and the region is a series of events that have damaged undersea cables and gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. At least 11 Baltic cables have been damaged since October 2023. Most recently, a fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland reportedly ruptured on Sunday.
NATO launched a new mission dubbed “Baltic Sentry” earlier this month to protect the underwater infrastructure vital to the economic well-being of the region. Although cable operators note that sub-sea cable damage is commonplace, the frequency and concentration of incidents in the Baltic have heightened suspicions that damage might have been deliberate.
To address those concerns, Nausėda said, “It is time for us to show some muscle.”
“NATO and the EU should take more responsibility in surveying the Baltic Sea, bringing additional maritime capabilities to prevent such incidents in the future,” he said.
Some politicians in Lithuania have objected to the country raising its military expenditures, already among the highest relative to GDP in the 32-member NATO alliance.
But Nausėda said Lithuania must show that it can be responsible for its own defense.
“This is an absolutely clear priority for this country, as a frontline country, that we have to spend more,” he said. "Of course, we can rely on the support of our allies in NATO. But it would be naive to expect that somebody will care about our security if there will be clear indications that we are not able to defend ourselves.”
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Associated Press writer Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.