Lithuania Is Open to Sending Troops on Training Mission in Ukraine

Lithuania has joined France in broaching the topic of sending soldiers to Ukraine.

In an interview with the Financial Times published on Wednesday, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said her country is prepared to deploy troops into Ukraine as part of a training mission. However, Kyiv has not requested such action.

"If we just thought about the Russian response, then we could not send anything," Šimonytė said, adding that Russia would view the deployment of troops to Ukraine as a provocation. "Every second week you hear that somebody will be nuked."

Her remarks mirror those of French President Emmanuel Macron, who last week told The Economist that NATO allies of Ukraine would "legitimately" have to consider putting boots on the ground in Eastern Europe if Russia broke through the front lines in Ukraine, escalating a conflict that has been widely deemed a stalemate nearly 27 months after it began.

"They are talking about the readiness and even the intention of sending armed contingents to Ukraine—that is, in fact, to put NATO soldiers in front of the Russian military," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to Macron's comments, according to online newspaper The Moscow Times.

"This is a completely new round of escalating tensions. It is unprecedented and requires special measures," Peskov added, including a Kremlin message to France's ambassador to tone down Macron's rhetoric.

Newsweek reached out to the Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Russian ministries of foreign affairs via email for comment.

Mikhail Troitskiy, Professor of Practice in Russian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek that Šimonytė's remarks seem to convey a message of not being impressed by Russia's attempts to convince NATO countries and Ukraine that Moscow is lowering its threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.

"Both the size of a possible Lithuanian military contingent and their mission in Ukraine are not being specified," Troitskiy said via email. "Participation of a small number of servicemen from NATO countries even in combat operations in Ukraine is unlikely to make a difference from a Russian perspective, and Moscow may already be factoring in the presence of NATO advisers and military instructors in Ukraine."

Šimonytė, who is running on the ticket of the ruling conservative Homeland Union as one of eight Lithuanian politicians vying to become president following a May 12 election, also told the FT that Russia's actions—including stepping up attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure like power stations, schools and hospitals—are aimed at getting a rise out of NATO and generating more fear in Ukrainians.

"Russia is trying to provoke a new wave of people fleeing Ukraine because there are no basic utilities and no basic services," she said.

But threats of troops in Ukraine could simmer later this summer when NATO allies convene July 9-11 in Washington D.C.

The Italian daily Corriere Della Sera referenced a circulating NATO draft document dictated by the United States, urging Western allies to adopt a "no boots on the ground" policy in Ukraine.

Jarosław Stróżyk, head of the Polish military counterintelligence service, warned on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is weighing some type of "mini-operation against one of the Baltic countries."

That could translate into a military move "to enter the famous Narva" border town along the Estonian-Russian frontier, Stróżyk said, "or to land on one of the Swedish islands."

Šimonytė may be trying to spark increased support from NATO militaries, Troitskiy said.

"From such a perspective, support by an additional European leader for a greater involvement of NATO militaries in the war in Ukraine may result in the tide being turned—with officials from the most reluctant European countries, such as Germany, being pressed to change their stance," he said.

"That could lead to a collective shift by European NATO members towards more decisive support for Ukraine in the run-up to the Washington NATO summit this July."