Washington's decision to halt aid to Ukraine was not surprising, Europe set to respond — Lithuania

Washington's decision to halt aid to Ukraine was not surprising, Europe set to respond — Lithuania

After the United States suspended military aid to Ukraine, Lithuanian Presidential Advisor Marius Česnulevičius said that Washington's decision was not a surprise and that Europe is preparing a response

He made the statement on the radio Žinių Radijas on Tuesday, as cited by LRT.

“The first thing is that this is not a surprise. The US and President Donald Trump have said in the past that they will try to pressure both sides to come to the negotiating table,” said Česnulevičius, President Gitanas Nausėda's chief national security adviser.

“What he (U.S. President Trump - ed.) is doing is a continuation of the policy that he announced and the signal has been received. This week there will be a European Council summit, there will be a meeting where this issue will certainly be discussed,” he added.

According to Česnuliavičius, there is a shared European consensus that Russia poses an existential threat.

“Europe has declared that it will support Ukraine, that it will pool the resources it has in other areas,” the presidential adviser said.

European leaders have been discussing for some time how to respond to previous signals of a change in Washington's policy.

“It is not true, as some may think, that Europe is asleep and not doing something. There are closed conversations, discussions, calculations, solutions on how to react, and we are currently talking about concrete plans on what we can do to further strengthen Ukraine and [...] weaken Russia, first of all economically,”Česnulevičius said.

He stated that it would take "months" for the impact of the U.S. decision to cut off aid to be felt on the battlefield in Ukraine, and in the meantime, Europe should make the necessary decisions.

“Maybe they [decisions] will not come in one day as we would like, but we are not at the beginning of the discussions,” the presidential adviser said.