Ukraine Crisis Media Center hosted a phone conference with Petras Vaitiekūnas, Lithuanian Ambassador in Ukraine, who is currently on the ground in Crimea.
Mr. Vaitiekūnas stated: “I see how Russia violates international laws and carries out aggression. In the streets you can see crowds of people, and generally people are very tense. I noticed the tension between the Russians, Ukrainians and Tatars, who are very unsecure right now. .. Russia needs to understand that they just crossed the red line, that it went too far. Soldiers have to return to their home headquarters, and it is obvious that these are Russian troops. Unidentified military forces create a very dangerous situation for the local population. Aside from these troops, I see Kazaks from Russia and Chetniks from Serbia, i see self-defence groups comprising of Russians, Ukrainians and maybe even Chechens.”
Commenting on the role of Western diplomats, Mr. Vaitiekūnas noted: ‘First of all we need to avoid human casualties. The Western diplomats need to try to calm down all of the parties to the conflict. Europe and the West have so far reacted almost ideally – quickly, accurately, explicitly, in a many-stage manner. The West still has many options of calming down the situation through dialogue. We need to get off the rails of the conflicts of Serbia, Abhazia, Prydnestrovie”.
