Ukraine’s blood should not pay for oil and gas, Lithuania tells Blinken

Lithuania’s foreign minister urges embargo on Russian energy, saying imports pay for military operation; ‘we cannot pay with blood of Ukraine’

Gabrielius Landsbergis meets US Secretary of State during Blinken’s tour of the Baltics, while Lithuanian president warns Putin ‘will not stop in Ukraine’

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The dead bodies of people killed by Russian shelling lie covered in the street in the town of Irpin, Ukraine on Sunday. Photo: AP

Published: 9:48pm, 7 Mar 2022Updated: 12:41pm, 9 Mar 2022

Lithuania called for an embargo on Russian energy sales on Monday, telling US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that oil and gas should not be paid for with the “blood of Ukraine”.

The call follows a similar plea from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Monday. Blinken said on Sunday the United States and European allies were exploring banning imports of Russian oil.

“Energy sources which we import pay for the Russian military operation. We cannot pay for oil and gas with the blood of Ukraine,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told a joint news conference with Blinken.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) and Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis at a press conference following their meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Russian gas cannot be easily replaced, however. Norway, Europe’s second largest supplier, is already operating at maximum capacity, and Europe’s existing LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminals have limited available capacity to absorb extra supply.

Addressing Blinken, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin “will not stop in Ukraine” and that the world had an obligation to help Ukrainians “by all means available”.

“Frankly deterrence is no longer enough and we need forward defence here in place because otherwise it will be too late, Mr Secretary. Putin will not stop in Ukraine if he will not be stopped,” Nauseda said at a separate news conference.

A woman cries as she arrives by ferry after fleeing from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at the Isaccea-Orlivka border crossing in Romania on Monday. Photo: Reuters

Russia calls the campaign it launched on February 24 a “special operation” that it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its neighbour’s military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists. Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians.