Lithuanian leaders promise to help Ukraine bring back men of conscription age

Lithuanian President Gitans Nausėdas and Prime Minister Ingrīda Šimonīte expressed their belief on Monday that Lithuania should help Ukraine to return men of conscription age living abroad to their homeland.

“Ukraine needs mobilization plans,” Nausėda said in a debate on Lithuanian Public Radio, stressing that “Ukraine must provide means and tools to encourage young men to serve their homeland. We must cooperate with Ukraine in every way.”

On the other hand, Šimonīte, who will be one of the eight candidates in the first round of the upcoming Lithuanian presidential elections on May 12, alongside Nausėdas, expressed confidence that Lithuania could help Ukraine to a certain extent in the mobilization issue, however, European Union (EU) level discussions on specific actions would be necessary.

“Perhaps we could look for ways to make sure that a person has fulfilled the obligation of mobilization or is exempt from it before we consider whether to extend his temporary residence permit. But here we need to cooperate not only with the Ukrainian authorities, but also more widely, because at the moment The EU has introduced so-called temporary protection for Ukrainian citizens,” she said.

“This temporary protection is quite universal, Ukrainian citizens living in the EU currently have very wide opportunities within the framework of this protection, and it is clear that it is not a matter of one or two countries,” said Šimonite.

Last week, Poland’s Defense Minister Władysław Kosińak-Kamisz confirmed Warsaw’s readiness to help Kyiv return conscript-age men to Ukraine.

However, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorski admitted that Warsaw’s help in bringing the men subject to mobilization to Ukraine was an ethically questionable move. Sikorsky emphasized that Kyiv should be a leader in this matter.

Responding to Kosiņak-Kamiš’s statement, Lithuanian Defense Minister Laurins Kasčuns also said that Vilnius could follow Poland’s example regarding Ukrainian men living abroad who are subject to mobilization.

It has already been reported that on April 16, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed the controversial mobilization law, which aims to increase the number of soldiers.

Since Russia’s repeated invasion of Ukraine at the beginning of 2022, the soldiers on the front lines have not had the opportunity to go on a rotational rest, meanwhile, many thousands of Ukrainians continue to avoid conscription. The law introduces a number of changes to the current system, expanding the powers of the Ukrainian authorities to issue summonses through an electronic system.

The new law also introduces tougher penalties for avoiding conscription and requires men to update their military registration information with authorities.

It is planned that men of mobilization age living abroad will not be issued new passports, nor will consular services be provided to men aged 18-60.

However, the law does not provide for the demobilization of soldiers who have served at the front for a long time, which the lawmakers refused to do under pressure from the Ukrainian army. The MPs announced that the issue of demobilization will be addressed in a separate bill, but did not provide further details.

Zelensky this month signed a separate law that lowered the age of mobilization from 27 to 25.