Well, first of all, it's not Lithuania doing anything. It's European sanctions that started working from the 17th of June, and the industry that is imposing the sanctions at this point is the railroads. They inform their clients that from the 17th of June that sanctioned goods, steel and other goods made from Iron ore will no longer be allowed to transit Lithuania. It is done with consultations with the European Commission and under the European Commission guidelines. So I think that there was some false information not for the first time announced by the Russian authorities, but I'm glad that we have a chance to explain this.
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No, I don't think so. I mean, at this point about slightly less than half of goods that transit Lithuania are in the sanctions list. But that doesn't mean that all of them are sanctioned right now. That means that because there are different wind down periods, and some of it as for example for oil, it will be sanctioned just at the end of the year starting from December. Even though the authorities have announced that it is sanctioned already, but it's not true actually.
(On slowing down the gas supply?)
Well, I think that basically Russia is showing that what kind of leverage does it have on EU. Truly, we've always known that, we've always been speaking about this in the Foreign Affairs Councils, but this is the time when we actually see how it works. So basically it has to be more resilient, to show more force and do it faster to find new deliveries where we can purchase the gas and for example today we have a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister and obviously that will be one of the topics we'll be discussing. Also food crisis, which is a huge problem and we're still not finding any solution to it. So we'll talk about this as well.
Well, we have the instruments to finish the war much faster we always have and if we would fulfill not the 10% of what Ukrainians are asking about 90% so the war would not take years and years.
(Can EU do more to transport UA grain?)
Yeah, absolutely, and it will remain a trickle if the Black Sea ports are not opened, and to open them military equipment is needed. And I've been speaking about that for almost two months now together with Ukrainians, they're saying that they need equipment and means to defend the ports. And if we are serious about helping to solve the food crisis, we have to be serious about defending the ports. Some of the equipment is already being sent to Ukraine, and we're seeing that not from the equipment side but from the Russian loss aside, but this is actually what is needed. Unfortunately, there is no other way. There's no other way to open up Odessa and other ports in the South of Ukraine.
And there are EU countries who have the equipment that is needed and if they provide this, I think that we can solve the crisis much much faster.
(Who has equipment?)
No, I would not name names because I don't know who has the equipment. I know that their requests have been sent to big and small allies in a similar fashion and I'm truly hopeful that that request will be heard, that the equipment will be delivered, and to my knowledge that could solve the problem very very fast. Basically, we need a deterrence. We need that deterrence for Russians, that they would not attack & use new opportunity when the ships are leaving the ports and they would not use this opportunity to attack the port and the grain.
(You are dropping the alternative route?)
We are not dropping any routes, but the problem is that any other route is not practically sufficient.
Basically, if you want to export the amounts of Ukrainians have we're talking 10s of millions of tons of grain. Basically the only route is the Black Sea.
Alternative as Constanta port, they can do their part, and we're doing our part actually as of now, but the amounts are very, very limited.
I would very much support this because the expectations are very high and not just from the political elite in Ukraine but also by Ukrainian people. I think it has to happen, but obviously the decision has not been yet found.
Well, rhetorics.
Thank you.
