in general, it shows that the status of neutral ukraine is subject to revision today, it is itself already dying in the 21st century in the conditions when nuclear weapons have turned from a deterrent tool, it is a tool of blackmail from russia when they say that we have these weapons not only for so that we are not destroyed as a matter of defense and we have an indulgence in order to do whatever we want and if god forbid you want to do something to us because we attack someone because we behave aggressively that is why we destroy you because we have a nuclear warhead, but in these circumstances, the status of neutrality does not guarantee absolutely anything, it does not provide security. moreover, the russian federation has opposed the very legal system of today's world system and, accordingly, does not comply with the commitments and agreements made in relation to to ukraine, not in relation to other states and thus and from the point of view of jurisprudence, let's say legal, the neutral status today is an absolutely worthless story, more a suggestion than a reality

an instrument of deterrence or security. therefore, this is a very serious change for finland and sweden, let's say that in order to illustrate this change, besides, of course, this situation will exhaust russia itself. and it is, first of all, so important in the eyes of the russians. or in the eyes of the western world, russia has lost very seriously, it has gained two strike first - this is also a hidden goal - this is the destruction of ukraine, which she only recently entered the hottest phase of the war. of the west, and this is the second, let’s say, public goal is ostentatious , so one by one, russia failed and failed in the eyes of china, india, iran, other international players with whom russia flirts, with whom it is important to have cards in its hands and to be a serious geopolitical player, not the west and you although now it is weakening because it is not able to achieve what it

would have put more, it will be dismantled into pieces and they do not want to be in the same basket together with russia in order to say that china supplies spare parts for the russian of the auto industry. here it is, evil moscow is pikin, so what a package of sanctions against russia we are spreading to beijing, now they are afraid of this, a huge thank you for adding important topics , next is our colleague yuriy fizer and his interview with the lithuanian ambassador to ukraine, it is very interesting to watch hello every week famous guests from famous personalities come to us on the espresso tv channel, famous people who help us understand how the west of europe reacts to what is happening in ukraine now. i mean the war that aggressively started russia on february 24 of this year and how the west responds

to it, how the west supports us, it is very important for us to know this and it is very important for us to feel this help , moreover, it is important for us to understand it. so, as i said, every week on the espresso tv channel , important people come to us, famous people of today ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of lithuania to ukraine valdemares sarapinas greetings mr. ambassador thank you very much for joining me today congratulations congratulations thank you for visiting us you understand ukrainian and i am studying ukrainian as far as i understand you have served as ambassador to ukraine since 2020. yes, you are right, okay. i want to say that it is a great honor for me to represent lithuania in ukraine, which

for us lithuanians is not only one of the most important partners, but also the best, closest, dearest friend. lithuania was lithuania, lithuania is her lithuania always will be with you, we will stay with you in yours, which means also in our fight against russian aggression, eh. believe in lithuania - everyone understands and supports this, both the leaders of our state, politicians, and ordinary lithuanians, eh, that's why we will stay with you together to victory, thank you very much for these kind words of support and you speak beautiful ukrainian. so, lithuania was one of the first countries to help ukraine after the beginning of russian aggression on february 24 this year. our president

said this during his address to the lithuanian parliament on april 12. thank you for this support and thank you for this help but you still continue to help us of course without any doubt ugh how to say it correctly we understand very clearly the answer to the question of who is who in the war in this war indeed, lithuania provided, provides and will always provide ukraine with enormous support in your struggle for freedom and territorial integrity , all the senior government officials of lithuania have repeatedly repeated this, our president, prime minister, speaker of our seimuth. by the way, they all recently

traveled to kyiv to express lithuania's unconditional support of the ukrainian people of your armed forces, with the fact that we meet the urgent needs of ukraine, and this is aid to the army, humanitarian aid and many other things. if we talk about the practical aspects of our support to us posis, i can say that since the beginning of the russian full-scale invasion in february, the armed forces of lithuania have provided your country with tens and maybe hundreds of millions of eurosport, including some of the latest equipment, stingar defense systems,

thermal imaging equipment for anti-drone weapons , and many other things besides, our state institutions non-governmental organizations, our people continue to provide you with humanitarian aid in your country, as well as in lithuania , about 50,000 ukrainians have found temporary housing in lithuania and believe me, all these people are given simplified conditions for obtaining a residence permit in medical services, a medical assistant, they get access to education, packages of social financial psychological support, see also very important name, also access to medical

services, i am especially proud of our lithuanian medical volunteers who are already working here in ukraine during the war in ukraine and i very much go, i really hope that in the future this process will continue dozens more trucks with medical equipment, medicines, vaccines, devices for artificial lung ventilation with surgical kits and other very, very important things. this is how there are so many special and concrete examples of our help, and by the way, let me give you one very special example: 40 tons of chlorine water disinfection component, with its help, they

purify water for the city on their own experience. more a month ago brown water flowed from the tap and how often it is now this is one very specific example food you probably know that the novus supermarket chain has 100% lithuanian investment was the first store that is free provided food to ukrainian soldiers as well as ordinary residents of kyiv, especially those who lived in metro stations. yesterday i spoke with the head of our novus. he informed me that now

74 out of 100 supermarkets have started working again. i am very much. let me also add one more very important thing in my opinion another incredibly important type of support is politically. morally, i have already mentioned the visits to ukraine by the leaders of our country, as well as many members of our parliament, seven or eight, as i hang up, visited kyiv as well many of our ministers have already been the minister of foreign affairs twice. and by the way, almost all of them were the first foreign ministers in their respective fields to visit war-torn ukraine, so on the

one hand, it is extremely important, if it were to be said, a gesture of political moral support during these visits. participation with them is very important specific and special things, for example, regarding the export of ukrainian grain through our seaport in klaipeda, he is fruava, or regarding the medical mission in ukraine, hospitals, or very there is no specific cooperation in the field of energy or regarding the agreement to send experts to document war crimes because my country will remain one of the closest partners of ukraine during the post-war reconstruction he er

ukraine glass user starter duolingo in the world now there is a lot of goodwill and generosity towards ukrainians therefore i have absolutely no doubt that your country will recover very quickly and as i said i am proud to have the honor of representing lithuania in such a dramatic period for your country thank you very much to your government and your people for their support and for staying with us in such a very difficult time for us, thank you very much states lithuania together with the other baltic countries have become real advocates of ukraine in the eu and

nato for ukraine to join at least the european union today is a unique chance, generally speaking, lithuania is one of the biggest supporters of ukraine's membership in the eu. of the european family and that ukraine needs to be put on the path to becoming a member of the eu as soon as possible ukraine the world is now seeing how ukraine is making huge sacrifices defending freedom european

values ​​frontal world is actually very impressed by this european capitals from vilnius to vienna vitalina to lisbon are now in ukrainian flags , you understand ukraine's heroic resistance to russian aggression made the issue of ukraine's membership in the european union more realistic let's be honest before the war about this the west had enough many skeptics they said that ukraine is not european enough, too poor, too corrupt, the peak of change today, huge changes are taking place and ukraine has already started this process. i would say it is an irreversible process. i think that political decisions are being made and they are also beginning to be

implemented, so i am convinced that despite this brutal price, i have pay attention to the thousands of smerteiners of ukraine. despite all this, today, as i said, ukraine has a unique chance to jump on the train of the european union, and we all strongly support your pro-european path, this is granting you the status candidate is the most important thing, moreover, public support for ukraine's membership in the eu now exceeds 90% and is almost 100%. therefore, i consider it a moral obligation of the european union to ukraine and its people, as the minister of foreign

affairs of lithuania, gabrielu slanzbergis, said in an interview with solutions that the world will live freely only if putin and his regime cease to exist, how do you see it? you see how it can happen yes, first of all, i am very happy because of the fact that there is complete unity among liturgists regarding the aggression provoked by russia against us ukraine's law on the wolf is aggression. how do you know about this? this week, our parliament, our diet , unanimously voted to recognize russia

as a terrorist state because of its mass murders and barbaric destruction. ukraine did not even try to comply with international law. the crimes committed by its army are enough to this is to qualify as genocide of the ukrainian people after so many atrocities committed by the russians in such cities as bucha irpin borodyanka, even moscow's closest partners began to distance themselves from russia, unfortunately even worse things can happen in such cities as mariupol and those areas of donbas that have come under russian control, it is obvious that we should pay very serious attention to this, we are not naive and take into account,

as it is correct to say, the unpredictable behavior of russia, which is combined with an aggressive international policy, well consider we also do not forget about the russian threats to us and our region. meter of our territory in the air on earth and at sea we really don't want even one russian soldier to ever set foot on our land, by the way, on

tuesday the seimas of lithuania adopted a new strategy for preparing the country's citizens for the national resistance, in addition, lithuania will probably continue the state of emergency after before his term ends in june, this was said by the adviser to the president - gitanas na usedi on matters of national security kestotis budris, you are preparing for a possible war with russia. we must be ready, as you know, how would we say it let me repeat, we are not naive, because russia is really a very unpredictable country, considering its unpredictable behavior, very aggressive international policy. we must be ready, we

must consider all options, as i said . will protect and that the fifth article will work if this happens but on the other hand i think that we need an even greater presence of nato troops on our land in lithuania latvia estonia in our region we really hope that our big partners, the united states of america, germany, the united kingdom, and others will understand this. in my opinion, what is needed in lithuania now is not a battalion, but at least a brigade

. security, for example, this year, lithuania has already increased defense spending to one and a half percent of our gdp, and in the future we plan to increase it to 3% of our gdp. do the russians continue their efforts ? destabilize the situation in lithuania, for example. when they talk about oppression in the country of russians and the russian language, frankly speaking, we do not feel it, you understand, the russian population in lithuania is even

less russians are not the largest ethnic minority , the polish car is the largest, he is a parrot, the russian population is about six and a half percent. to be honest, after lithuania gained independence, the russians who wanted to leave simply took and left, loyal russians, those who remained took lithuanian citizenship and now they are just normal, good citizens of lithuania because we do not feel such pressure from our russian minority and that is good during a trip to ukraine one of the members of the lithuanian parliament said a quote war can be stopped in two ways collective victory or collective defeat of course the second option is not for us because it is a

war against the whole of europe personally i i don't see many people who support russia, nevertheless, such people are the end of the quote, mr. ambassador. who helps russia and how to fight it? i already said that in my opinion, in my opinion, russia did not even try to follow international rules and this is bad, i mean the international rules of war, the crimes that russian soldiers commit against the ukrainian people are equivalent to genocide. to ukraine let me add two

probably two things to your question firstly how to say it let's not ourselves finance russian aggression by allowing it to export to the european union's natural resources, especially energy, let's cut off russia's source of income and limit its opportunities to develop its own army, because this is very bad, you can imagine that europe pays russia 600 million dollars for gas every day, this is not normal, let's just stop paying for russian aggression by allowing it to export in the european union , we will cut off our own natural resources, especially energy

sources, and give them the opportunity to modernize their own army, this is one thing, and the other is a very broad topic but we also have to think about it, we need to start addressing the russian people and explain to them what is really happening and not leave them to russian propaganda. i know that this is a very long and very difficult process, but we have to start doing it. star thank you very much ok lithuania as far as i know sent a team of investigators to ukraine in order for them to collect evidence of war crimes in some ukrainian cities that you have already mentioned, for example in buch irpin gostomel they

they want to collect evidence about the war crimes of the russian army in ukraine, then this evidence will be handed over to the international court of justice. do you think such a trial can be held only after the end of the russian war in ukraine or even now? my answer is that we should start immediately. you already mentioned that we sent to ukraine , a team of their specialists, they are already working , a team of our experts is already here acting in general, when we see the atrocities and the level of inhumanity and cruelty of the russian army, do everything possible in order to bring to justice all those responsible for this, there is no need to delay.

lithuania has initiated the creation of an international investigative group that will investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in ukraine. we did it as part of the eurojust. in my opinion, we should not wait. well, okay every angle note now we will not be sure with your help with the help of other european friends and my last question for today the president of lithuania gitana snausada this week said quote the putin regime is now attacking not only ukraine he is attacking the whole free and democratic world we must stop this destructive force before it is too late this is our common position together we will win as the world in general and europe in particular will look like after the defeat of putin and his regime

yes i really hope that the putin regime will be defeated today to answer your question, but how long will it take? all of us , lithuania, together with other countries, will continue to support ukraine. to be honest, i am very optimistic about the future of ukraine. rapid recovery after the war, we see that western countries have promised to support the reconstruction of ukraine in all ukrainian regions as soon as conditions allow it. by the way, lithuania is not an exception. we follow your president and your government carefully.

our goal is to help you with recovery and meet your needs. it is obvious that we participate in this process. let me also add that i have no doubts that the support from the european union will only increase, especially after ukraine receives candidate status. i also hope that this it is very important that they were frozen by the west sooner or later. of course, it is better to use them sooner for the reconstruction of ukrainian cities and the economy. it is obvious that the speed of recovery will depend on your people on the boat, it will depend on the efficiency of your state institutions. post-war

reconstruction is also very pressing. i believe that right now you need to start thinking and planning very seriously, you are already doing it, well, i hope you can no, i hope not i am sure that you will be able to take full advantage of the support that is coming from all over the world, we thank you very, very much. convey our thanks to your government. convey our grateful words of thanks to your people for their brotherly support and for their