In response to the shelling of Ukraine during the opening of the Paralympic Winter Games, a note was handed to a representative of RussiaBilateral RelationsNews of the[...]

On 7 March, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned a representative of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Lithuania and handed a diplomatic note expressing a strong protest over another mass shelling of Ukraine by the Russian military last night, during which civilians were targeted again. Residential areas, civilian and energy infrastructure were destroyed, peaceful civilians of Ukraine were killed or injured.

On 7 March, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned a representative of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Lithuania and handed a diplomatic note expressing a strong protest over another mass shelling of Ukraine by the Russian military last night, during which civilians were targeted again. Residential areas, civilian and energy infrastructure were destroyed, peaceful civilians of Ukraine were killed or injured.

The note states that at the time of the opening ceremony of the 14th edition of the Winter Paralympics in Milano and Cortina, in which the athletes of the aggressor Russia and its accomplice Belarus were unjustifiably and shamelessly allowed to participate, Russian war criminals attacked Ukraine with 480 combat drones and 29 missiles, including ballistic missiles. A five-storey residential building in Kharkiv was targeted, killing at least eleven civilians, including two children. Energy infrastructure in Kyiv and in the Khmelnytskyi and Chernivtsi regions, as well as railway infrastructure in the Zhytomyr region, and civilian targets were also hit in many other regions of Ukraine.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs draws attention to the fact that as missiles fly into Ukrainian cities, the athletes of the aggressor Russia and its accomplice Belarus are invited to a red carpet event of the Paralympic Games and are allowed to use their countries' national flags and anthems. Lithuania reminds the International Paralympic Committee that its shameful decision has rewarded the aggressor. History will not forget Russia's crime of aggression and those who have contributed to it by turning a blind eye to the war crimes.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania underlines that the responsibility for war crimes and other international crimes is not subject to any statute of limitations and reiterates its demand that the Russian Federation immediately end its aggression against Ukraine, withdraw its occupying forces from the entire internationally recognised territory of Ukraine and compensate for all damage caused as a result of the Russian aggression against Ukraine.