Sanctions on Russia will prevail; be patient, Lithuania PM says

The European Union (EU) needs patience as it sanctions Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, as most measures will only have an impact in the medium and long term.

Lithuania's prime minister said in an interview at  the  Reuters NEXT conference on Thursday.

"My message is that we need to have patience. Because there are no sanctions that can switch Russia off overnight, "It is not possible; we should not look for this," Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said.

She said thatthere was a broad agreement among NATO members not to pressure Ukraine to negotiate and called on NATO to provide air defenses to not only eastern NATO members but also to Ukraine.

She pointed to the missile explosion in Poland in November that killed two people.

Poland and other Western states have said the missile was a Ukrainian air defense missile that went astray in pursuit of a Russian missile.

"The better air defence system Ukraine has the less probability of incidents like that might happen. "It is important not only for NATO to provide a decent air  defense system but also to provide Ukraine with a decent air  defense system," she said.

Lithuania will host a NATO summit in 2023, which Simonyte expects to be dominated by Ukraine but also by the decision of Sweden and Finland to join the Western Defense Alliance.

She refused to comment on reports that she is angling to lead the NATO alliance after the current secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, would have steppeddown in September 2023.

Lithuania and the other Baltic States of Latvia and Estonia, once ruled from Moscow but now part of both NATO and the EU, were better prepared to withstand a Russian attack since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, she said.

However, Russian President, Vladimir Putin's choice to invade Ukraine has given rise to fears he might do same in the Baltics, she said.

"It is hard to say there is a thing he would not do," Simonyte said.

Since the invasion, NATO has named Russia a persistent threat, nearby Sweden and Finland have applied to join the alliance, and NATO'spresence in the Baltics has increased.

Adding to the jitters, neighboring Belarus has deepened its close relationship with Russia and is now fully dependent, Simonyte said.

"This looks more like a province than a sovereign country." There is a decent question, how self-sufficient is (Belarus President Alexander) Lukashenko in decisions he is making,'' she said.

The Belarus military did not take part in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but Russian troops used Belarus territory for their offensive, she added.