Press release, 17 March 2014
During the visit to Ukraine, Speaker of the Seimas, Loreta Graužinienė, and Marshal of the Polish Senate, Bogdan Borusewicz, had a meeting with Prime Minister of Ukraine, Arseniy Yatseniuk. At the meeting, the Ukrainian Prime Minister asked EU Member States to provide financial aid to Ukraine as soon as possible. According to the Prime Minister, the former Ukrainian Government threw the country into bankruptcy; therefore, the incumbent authorities have to address serious economic problems at a very complex time, during the conflict with Russia.
“Tension is mounting in Ukraine. The current government says to people it cannot explain why occupation of Crimea was not prevented. The Ukrainian Prime Minister said he had clearly expressed his position on many occasions that Crimea was part of Ukraine,” the Speaker of the Seimas said.
Speaker of the Seimas, Loreta Graužinienė, and Marshal of the Polish Senate, Bogdan Borusewicz, laid flowers in the centre of Maidan Square in Kyiv to those, who had died in their fight for independence of Ukraine.
“The courageous people, who gave their lives for freedom of their homeland, are the heroes of Ukraine and deserve eternal respect. Lithuania understands the high value of independence, since it has already experienced this,” Mrs Graužinienė said.
About one hundred people lost their lives as a result of the bloody clashes in Ukraine at the end of February; many were injured or are still missing.
The leader of the Lithuanian Parliament is taking part in the meeting of the presidium of the parliamentary assembly of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. Kęstutis Masiulis, a member of the Seimas Delegation to the trilateral parliamentary assembly of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, is also attending the meeting. At the meeting, the Polish delegation to the parliamentary assembly is represented by Bogdan Borusewicz, Marshal of the Senate, and the Ukrainian delegation to the parliamentary assembly is represented by Oleksandr Turchynov, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and interim President of Ukraine.
Speaker Graužinienė and the delegation are coming back to Vilnius tonight after the meeting of the presidium of the parliamentary assembly of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine.
Photos of the Secretariat of the Speaker of the Seimas
Secretariat of the Speaker of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 239 6002
Dalia Valentienė, Adviser to the Speaker of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 239 6030, mob. +370 698 42 786
