Baltic NATO Country Says It's Ready To Send Troops To Ukraine

A Baltic NATO country has belatedly jumped on board and backed French President Emmanuel Macron's idea of putting Western boots on the ground in Ukraine.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said in an interview with the Financial Times this week that her country is prepared to deploy troops inside Ukraine. She stipulated it could be part of a training mission for Ukrainian troops if called upon.

However, a formal request from Kiev has not been made yet, she said. Šimonytė then admitted, "If we just thought about the Russian response, then we could not send anything."

"Every second week you hear that somebody will be nuked." Thus she appeared to openly admit that the consequences would likely be catastrophic and lead to WW3, even while saying Lithuania is open to the possibility.

"Russia is trying to provoke a new wave of people fleeing Ukraine because there are no basic utilities and no basic services," Šimonytė described of the current situation of unrelenting Russian attacks on the country's energy infrastructure.

Her words follow Macron telling the The Economist last week that NATO allies would "legitimately" have to consider sending troops to defend Ukraine in the scenario that Russian forces break through the front lines. Yet that already appears to be happening in the north, in Kharkiv region, where Russia has launched a rare cross-border offensive.

"Russia launched a new wave of counteroffensive actions... Ukraine met them there with our troops, brigades, and artillery," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Friday. "Now there is a fierce battle underway."

The AFP has written, "If Moscow's advances are confirmed, it would represent the Russian military's largest land operation in the region since sending thousands of troops across the border in February 2022."

Last month, Germany sent an advance team of 20 soldiers to Lithuania, laying the groundwork for the recently discussed establishment of a permanent brigade in the NATO country.

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According to Deutsche Welle reporting, the 5,000-strong strikeforce called Panzerbrigade 45 is said to become fully operational by 2027. The brigade will support the already existing so-called NATO Enhanced Forward Presence in the Baltic country, which, in contrast to Panzerbrigade 45, rotates its personnel regularly and was made up of soldiers from Germany, Belgium, Czechia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and the United States as of December 2023.