SEIMAS COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENCE STATEMENT ON AGGRESSION AGAINST UKRAINE BY THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION (27 November 2018)

The Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on National Security and Defence of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania

strongly condemn the provocative actions against the ships of the Ukrainian Navy performed on 25 November 2018 by the Russian Federation in violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and the fundamental principles of international law;

consider that such actions of the Russian Federation threaten the security and stability of all European countries;

call on the Russian Federation to put an immediate end to the provocative actions against Ukraine, return the arrested vessels, release the seamen detained, offset the losses, and provide Ukrainian vessels with free access to Ukrainian ports in the Azov Sea as envisaged by international law;

reiterate that Lithuania strongly and consistently supports Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration and call on NATO and the Member States of the European Union to provide military assistance to Ukraine and ensure the deployment of international observers on its territory;

call on  NATO to strengthen its presence in the Black Sea;

appeal to the Member States of the European Union and the EU institutions with a call for expanding the political and economic sanctions applied to the Russian Federation for its aggression against the sovereign state of Ukraine;

appeal to the heads of the institutions of the European Union, parliaments of the European Union and NATO, the United Nations, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Council of Europe, their parliamentary assemblies, and the international community at large to take immediate action to end Russian aggression against Ukraine and ensure compliance with international legal arrangements.

Juozas Bernatonis, Chair of the Seimas Committee on Foreign Affairs

Vytautas Bakas, Chair of the Seimas Committee on National Security and Defence