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The Baltic nation of Lithuania announced this week it will send more ammunition and military advisors to help the Ukrainian military in its fight against pro-Russia separatists in the Donbass region of East Ukraine.
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“We have decided to provide military assistance immediately in the form of ammunition, we will increase the number of military instructors and cyber security instructors. We have also decided on additional humanitarian assistance,” Grybauskaite told a joint press conference with her Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko.
“We know how difficult it is for large countries, for international institutions to move, to make a decision, but we can do it,” she added, reported The Baltic Times.
Lithuania has previously supplied Ukraine with ammunition, as well as certain weapons and hardware, with the first shipment sent reaching Ukraine in 2014 when Russian annexed Crimea and started supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Currently, over 20 Lithuanian instructors are training Ukrainian forces. Under a parliament mandate, Lithuania can send up to 60 troops to Ukraine.
“Sometimes it is not easy to be the first with sanctions or supporting you (Ukraine – BNS Lithuania). Sometimes you have to be prepared to pay the price for it, even a personal one. We have received direct attacks from Russia, (…) but we are taking it as a necessity, as an expected reaction,” Grybauskaite said, added The Baltic Times.
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“We know that an open word in the world is more important than an army, that courage to protect and to say to the aggressor that you are an aggressor, (…) it is even more important than any kind of sanctions,” she added.