Lithuanian Foreign Minister Warns International Society against Appeasing Putin at Cost of Ukraine

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has called unacceptable the scenarios in which Ukraine would have to negotiate a truce and the Kremlin would gain some benefits from the aggression. 

Landsbergis noted on Twitter that if Russia were to obtain a ceasefire in the near future, Putin could call it a victory, and in practice, it would also mean that the aggressor had won, and the world had accepted it. 

"You can call it a 'new reality' if you want, but this new reality would be horrible and we cannot allow it to happen. We should choose to make the aggressor lose," he wrote.

Landsbergis' statement is clearly a response to the public debate in the West that the Ukrainian counter-offensive is progressing very slowly and that Ukraine's intentions to return all the occupied territories look unrealistic.

Before that, he said that the West should openly set a goal of Ukraine's victory in the war, rather than talking about "support for as long as it takes".

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also responded emotionally to commentators who criticised the counteroffensive for being "too slow".