The adviser said in an interview to the radio station Žinių radijas on Tuesday that President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the issue in their latest meeting.
According to Budrys, Lithuania is ready to help Ukraine with repatriation of military age men to the extent Ukraine sees necessary.
“Some principles should be retained, that this would be necessary to implement and effective. (&) An effective decision means that it should be at least a regional decision between countries,” stated Budrys.
According to the adviser, a regional solution would ensure effective mobilisation processes of military age Ukrainians.
Asked how the measure would be implemented, Budrys admitted that Lithuania has not done anything like this before.
“We have not done this, so we cannot prejudge and claim that we have a fantastic solution to how this would work,” the president’s adviser said.
Last week, Ukraine announced it would introduce new measures encouraging military age citizens to return to their homeland. Ukraine stopped issuing new passports to conscription age men but so far the extent and duration of this move is unclear. Ukrainian men with some exceptions have been barred from leaving the country since Russia’s large-scale invasion in 2022. Some have fled the country illegally, while those who lived abroad prior to 2022 did not return after Russia’s invasion. Ukrainian forces currently face challenges on the battlefield, including the shortage of manpower.
