Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovilė Sakalienė says Europe needs to be “armed to the teeth” now that the US is pivoting away from its traditional transatlantic alliance. She explained to Euronews how her family was exiled in Siberia by the Soviet Union. And why Europe needs to defend itself.
America’s pivot towards more cooperation with Russia is the beginning of a “very difficult process” and requires Europe to the “armed to the teeth”, said Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovilė Sakalienė talking to Euronew’s Europe Conversation.
“We need to have instruments that are capable of ensuring that all the states that are on the borders of Nato are fully protected”, she added. “Because if infringement happens on one inch of territory of Lithuania, Latvia or Finland, then everybody falls”.
Minister Sakalienė attended the NATO Defense Ministers Summit in Brussels on 12th and 13th February when US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told allies that Ukraine’s ambition to join Nato, and return to its pre-2014 borders – before the Russian invasion were “unrealistic”.
Šakalienė emphasised that NATO now finds itself in a very difficult moment. “We are in the beginning of a very difficult process where we will have to find specific ways to generate strength.”
“Armed to the teeth”
She said although Europe has increased spending on defense it was not “matching the speed of Russian military industry, of Russian transition from peacetime to wartime economy, or of Russian assembly of troops at quite the threatening speed.”
The “good part of the message is that peace through strength was reiterated all around the room”, she said of the meeting of Nato ministers with Hegseth.
However recent pronouncements from the US are widely seen as a seismic change in America’s approach to the traditional transatlantic relationship.
In relation to the deployment of troops to Ukraine as part of a ceasefire, and ongoing talks between Russia and the US, Minister Sakalienė says its more important for Europe to be armed and ready.
”Talks are completely irrelevant right now. Funds and production is what is really relevant because as I said, if we really want to stand strong by Ukraine and if we really want to stand strong in the face of Russia’s preparation for the next stages of imperial expansion, then we need to be armed to our teeth.”
Exile in Siberia
Lithuania which share a border with Russia has living memory of the ”horrors” of the Soviet Union. Minister Sakalienė said her mother “barely survived” the harsh conditions of being exiled in Siberia. “I come from a family that was persecuted by Russians. My mother was born in Siberia and barely survived. My family was imprisoned, tortured, murdered. We know that when Russians come, then your best case scenario is that you are imprisoned or deported.”
“But most likely you will be raped, tortured and murdered. And therefore, that is the threat that is actually looming over Europe right now. And if we understand that stopping the active frontline in Ukraine means that Russia will immediately accelerate its accumulation of forces that it is gathering for the next imperial stage expansion. That means that we have a very short time period to get ready.”
