Lithuanian Leader Says Now is the Worst Time for Ukraine to Negotiate with Russia

Vladimir Putin feels that Russia is “the stronger party,” President of Lithuania has argued

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has suggested that the present moment in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is the “worst” possible time for Kyiv to initiate negotiations with Moscow.

Since the start of the year, Russian forces have been steadily advancing in Donbas and other parts of the frontline, capturing numerous settlements, including the strategic town of Avdeevka in February and the key stronghold of Ugledar earlier this month. In recent weeks, Ukrainian-controlled territory in Russia’s Kursk Region, where Kyiv troops launched an incursion in early August, has also been shrinking.

Nauseda, upon arriving at the EU leaders summit in Brussels on Thursday, told journalists that Russian President Vladimir Putin “thinks he is prevailing and pushing Ukraine into the corner.”

“This is the worst moment to start negotiations because he feels Russia is the stronger side,” he said as cited by Reuters.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky is scheduled to address the gathering in Brussels later in the day to promote his self-styled ‘victory plan.’

Zelensky presented his proposals to the Ukrainian parliament on Wednesday, stating that they include an immediate invitation for Kyiv to join NATO, the lifting of restrictions on the use of Western-supplied long-range weapons for strikes on internationally recognized Russian territory, and the deployment of “a comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package” on Ukrainian soil. “This plan can be implemented. It depends on the partners. I emphasize: on partners. It doesn’t exactly depend on Russia,” he claimed.

“There is nothing new in there,” the Lithuanian president said regarding Zelensky’s plan. “There is what we wanted to do but failed to do at the Vilnius summit [in 2023] on inviting Ukraine to join NATO, and then the same thing happened again in Washington [in July].” 

“As long as we do not do it, we are far from victory. The very causal links here are self-evident,” Nauseda, a staunch supporter of Ukraine during the conflict, added.

Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, characterized Zelensky’s proposals as a “set of incoherent slogans,” stating that they were not a ‘victory plan,’ but rather a “plan for the misfortune of Ukraine.”

In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow was prepared to cease hostilities and commence talks with Ukraine immediately if Kyiv were to officially renounce its NATO aspirations and withdraw from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, along with the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, which joined Russia following referendums in the fall of 2022.

Zelensky rejected the offer, labeling it an “ultimatum.” The Kremlin stated that these terms were no longer on the table after Ukraine launched its incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region.