The Lithuanian president’s Senior National Security Advisor, Kęstutis Budris, has not ruled out French President Emmanuel Macron’s idea of sending military instructors to Ukraine.
Amid recent calls by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis to return to Macron’s idea of sending military instructors to Ukraine, the head of state’s senior national security adviser, Kęstutis Budrys, said on Wednesday that Lithuania was not ruling it out.
“When there will be a need to talk about it (sending the military), it will be discussed. Lithuania does not rule anything out,” Budrys said, Delfi reported.
Landsbergis recently urged NATO to consider sending troops to Ukraine because of the possible involvement of the DPRK army in the war on the Russian side.
“At the beginning of the year, Emmanuel Macron hinted at putting boots on the ground. At the end of the year, North Korea actually did it. We are still on the back foot, reacting to escalation instead of reversing it. Macron’s ideas should now be revisited, better late than never,” Landsbergis posted on X on Sunday.
Building on this, Budrys recalled the principles that emerged from the International Conference on Ukraine in Paris in early 2024, namely to do what Ukraine most needs and asks for, to do it in a group of like-minded countries to have a more tangible impact, and not to exclude any option under consideration.
At the same time, he stressed that the issue of sending military instructors to Ukraine should not become a way of avoiding a more important issue: security guarantees for Ukraine.
His statements echo the controversy sparked by Macron’s statement about nothing having been ‘ruled out’ regarding the deployment of troops to Ukraine at an international conference on Ukraine in Paris in February.
Macron later explained that France would “never go on the offensive” but reiterated his goal of making Russia lose the war.
Most European leaders reacted cautiously to his words, assuring him they had no plans to send their troops into Ukraine.
(Charles Szumski | Euractiv.com)
Source: euractiv.com
