President: horse-trading on sanctions with Russia is not possible

Any horse-trading on sanctions with Russia would encourage Kremlin to use new forms of aggression, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has said in response to Turkey’s statement that Russia’s demands for an end to sanctions to help grain onto the world market are “legitimate”.

“If we start to doubt the appropriateness of our sanctions or to horse-trade on them, this would provide further incentives for Russia to use new forms of aggression,” he said during a press conference on Wednesday.

“We can reach a level where there would be barely any sanctions left while Russia would use all possibilities to increase the scale of its aggression in Ukraine,” Nauseda added.

Ukraine, one of the largest grains exporters in the world, cannot use its Black Sea ports, which have been blocked by Russian naval forces.

The West is considering shipping Ukrainian grain by rail via other European countries, which, however, is a difficult task, given the existing large grain volumes.