Lithuanian formin: we are opening hell by questioning who Crimea belongs to

VILNIUS – There can be no question of recognizing the annexation of Crimea as this would contradict the principles of international law and send a message to the aggressors about the possibility of keeping the occupied territories, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys has said.

“There are various ways of looking at it [the US-Russia talks], but as long as there is no final agreement, I would still classify it as speculation, except for the part where we are talking about considerations outside of the boundaries of international law...,” the minister told the Ziniu Radijas news radio on Thursday.

According to him, “those things that go against international law – the annexation of Crimea – are completely out of bounds, this is not about Ukraine: this is about international law and principles”.

“There can be no discussion about it, it is a dangerous place, because it sends a message that if you occupy a territory and keep it for some years, you can claim its legal ownership,” Budrys noted.

“By questioning the principles of international law, by questioning the issue of Crimea's status, we are opening a hell from which devils will crawl out that no one will contain, and this will mean that the influence of the United States and ability to set certain rules, which derive from its enormous hyper-power, will be dramatically reduced", he said.

In this case, according to him, “the international order would collapse”.

“Immediately, the Security Council of the United Nations will be targeted, why five nuclear powers can negotiate where the new borders can be, the very foundations of nuclear proliferation as such will be undermined, because states will question why we do not have nuclear weapons if they provide not only security, but also the possibility of seizing somebody's territory, because we are aware that Russia's nuclear weapons have significantly constrained the supply of military aid to Ukraine,” the minister said.

“Going back to these negotiations, to the deliberations in the public domain about what can be put on the table, Lithuania can never and will never accept things that are outside international law – to rape a state, to take away territory, to say that everything is fine, that you are smaller now, that's outside international law and that's the road to hell," he added.

According to Budrys, this situation is beneficial for Russia because the public debate is not about Russia, but about the disagreements between the United States and Ukraine, Europe.

“[We are talking] not about what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is doing, has done and is going to do. In this sense, the whole field and communication should be straightened out, it does not contribute to the result. In my estimation, I can say, in Lithuania's estimation, it is not about [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky and Ukraine at the moment,” the minister noted.

The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Putin offered to halt Russia's invasion of Ukraine on the current front line.

The Russian leader indicated he would be willing to withdraw Moscow's claims to parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia -- four regions it partially occupies -- the FT said.

In return, the United States might accede to Russia's other major demands, the financial daily added, including recognizing its sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula that it annexed in 2014, and barring Ukraine from joining NATO.

US President Donald Trump earlier said that Crimea – a lush Black Sea peninsula with longtime major Soviet and Russian naval facilities – “was lost years ago” and “is not even a point of discussion”.

Zelensky responded by posting on social media a 2018 “Crimea declaration” by Trump's then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo, which said Washington “rejects Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea”.