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In response to
"Russia says it will exempt some white-collar workers from call-up after businesses warn of repercussions."
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crash davis
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Russians fleeing the draft will not be welcomed in the Baltic States, Lithuania’s foreign minister says.
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BRUSSELS — Lithuania and its neighbors sharing land borders with Russia are taking a hard line with Russian men trying to escape being drafted to fight in Ukraine, the country’s foreign minister said in an interview on Friday.
Since President Vladimir V. Putin’s announcement on Wednesday of a new troop call-up, some Russian men who had once thought they were safe from the front lines have fled the country. And they have done so in a rush, lining up at the borders.
Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s foreign minister, said the Baltic States, along with Poland and Finland, have sharply tightened their policies and are checking even those Russians with valid visas to enter Europe. Most are being denied entry, he said, unless there is a clear humanitarian or journalistic reason.
“We see them not as antiwar people, we see them as anti-fighting-the-war people,” Mr. Landsbergis said in a telephone interview from the United Nations. “They were not fleeing Russia when Bucha happened, when Kyiv was shelled or when any other horrific things happened in Ukraine.”
Either they were silent, he said, or “they didn’t care, and some of them even supported it publicly.”
“Suddenly, when it’s their war, they are fleeing,” he added. “So therefore I have absolutely no trust that they are somehow changing the psyche of Russia.”
Mr. Landsbergis also urged NATO allies, including Washington and Berlin, to stop agonizing about sending more sophisticated weapons — like Western battle tanks and advanced radars — to Ukraine.
“I wish we would stop this debate about whether Ukrainians are able to use the weapons, whether the delivery of weapons is an escalation in itself,” he said. “Putin escalates no matter what we do.”
The Ukrainians have proved both adaptable and responsible, he said.
“So just deliver the weapons, stop the debate, deliver the weapons, help Ukraine win — and this is how you create this postwar reality,” Mr. Landsbergis said.
Only then could Ukraine negotiate a settlement with Russia, he said. And given that Ukraine has been fighting “our war” against NATO’s main adversary, he said, Ukraine should be promised NATO membership.
“NATO is good in defending itself, and good at promoting reform with an actual promise of membership,” he said. “So I think that it’s crucial now, already now, to return to the question that Ukraine has to get a very clear plan and offer of a membership.”
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