“After the Crimea occupation, the reaction from the West was very slow, despite Russia demonstrating openly in broad daylight that it could occupy the territories of neighboring countries,” Grybauskaite told The Associated Press in an interview this week. Now, she says, many Western leaders are still grossly misled about the Kremlin’s real intentions and lack the political will to respond accordingly. The European Union’s budget commissioner for five years before serving as Lithuania’s president from 2009 to 2019, she was one of few European leaders who warned of Russian interference in eastern Europe even before Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Grybauskaite earned a reputation as the “Baltic Iron Lady” for her resolute leadership and bluntness, particularly regarding Russia.
Her skepticism reflects a widely held belief in the Baltic countries that the West, even after Russia launched the biggest war in Europe since World War II, has never truly understood the threat that Moscow poses to the continent. I doubt that the decision on Ukraine’s future will be precise and affirmative,” said Dalia Grybauskaite, Lithuania’s former president. “The Vilnius summit will be important, but not historic. President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders will be the most high-profile international event that Lithuania has hosted since it joined the alliance in 2004, and some locals hope it will be of historic significance. The two-day summit starting Tuesday with U.S. Now we must help our brothers and sisters in Ukraine and I hope the summit will bring good news for them.” “They are even bringing Patriot missile defenses over here. “Never in its history was Lithuania this safe,” says Jonas Braukyla, an IT engineer, who brought his family to see the U.S.-made Abrams tanks, German Leopards and Marders and other military hardware brought out to project NATO power ahead of an alliance summit next week.
The area, usually busy with cars, cyclists and pedestrians, is closed to traffic and packed with heavy armored vehicles. VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) - A pair of colorful children’s scooters rest against the yellow tracks of a battle tank, parked in the shade of skyscrapers in the Vilnius business district.
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