Lithuania pledges military aid for Ukraine

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite on Monday promised military assistance for Ukraine as she slammed Russia’s alleged “terrorist” interference in a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

Grybauskaite, one of Ukraine’s strongest backers in its bid for closer ties with the West, promised that the Baltic state would use “all support available” to help Ukraine militarily at a meeting with President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev.

Poroshenko said that this included the supply of unspecified weapons to Ukrainian forces and training for Kiev’s troops.

“This a concrete demonstration of support in the difficult situation that Ukraine finds itself in,” Poroshenko said.

Ukraine has been battling a pro-Russian insurgency in the east for more than seven months, with the West and Kiev accusing Moscow of pouring arms and troops over the border to fuel the fighting.

Kiev has asked the United States for weapons but so far has only received non-lethal support — such as night-vision goggles, body armour and radio equipment — from its major Western backer.

Moscow denies it is involved in the fighting but Grybauskaite said Russia was carrying out covert activities in Ukraine that amount to terrorism.

“Sending soldiers without identification tags, sending weaponry without identification and supporting terrorists — it is terrorist behaviour,” she said.

The Lithuanian leader said no one should be allowed to stop Ukraine if it decided to join NATO, after Kiev’s pro-Western parties signed a deal to form a coalition Friday that specified the intention to become a member of the US-led bloc.

She cautioned, however, that authorities need to make good on promised economic and anti-corruption reforms to turn around the ex-Soviet nation.

Poroshenko said that any possible entry by Ukraine into NATO could eventually be decided at a nationwide referendum once all the necessary reforms have been carried out.