MOSCOW, November 21 – RIA Novosti. Lithuania has refused to hand over the Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzer and NASAMS anti-aircraft missile systems, which are in service with the Lithuanian armed forces, to Ukraine, but plans to accelerate the purchase of additional medium-range air defense systems for itself, the Minister of Defense of the Baltic Republic told reporters Monday Arvydas Anusauskas.

“As for air defense, this is a very topical issue for the entire region in general. We have to accelerate the purchase of additional medium-range air defense systems. We planned to do this much later, we will try to zoom in. We know Supply and demand, it will not be so easy to do, but next year We will definitely start this process a few years ago,” he said. The broadcast was carried out by the LRT (Lithuanian Radio and Television) portal.

The Minister of Defense noted that Vilnius’ aid to Kiev has already exceeded 640 million euros, and military support has reached 232 million euros. According to Anushauskas, in the future, Lithuania will supply Kiev with the “necessary ammunition”.

Answering a journalist’s question about Lithuania’s refusal to hand over the Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzer and NASAMS anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine, which are in service of the Lithuanian armed forces, Anushauskas said that “the meeting has ended and there has been neither discussion nor discussion.” “We have discussed this issue in a closed format, unfortunately we will not tell you the details, we have our own arguments, our own proposals,” he said.

Moscow had previously stated that “continuous large-scale aid to Kiev” is increasingly “involving Western countries in the conflict on the side of the Kyiv regime”. Russian Foreign Ministry Head Sergei Lavrov pointed out that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine would become a legitimate target for Russia. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov noted that pumping weapons into Ukraine from the West does not contribute to the success of the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations and will have a negative effect.