In Kyiv, Gitanas Nausėda presented state awards of the Republic of Lithuania to the Minister of Defence of Ukraine, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and Minister of Foreign Affairs

President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda, who arrived in Kyiv on the Day of the National Flag of Ukraine, awarded Minister of Defence of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov with the Order of the Cross of Vytis (Pogonia), Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces General Valerii Zaluzhnyi – with the Officer's Order of the Cross of Vytis (Pogonia), and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba - the Order for Merits to Lithuania.

These are the state awards for merits to the Republic of Lithuania.

In particular, the Order of the Cross of Vytis was awarded to Oleksii Reznikov for outstanding dedication and leadership in the defence of Western democratic values and the struggle for Europe.

Lithuania has been actively helping Ukraine to fight the russian invaders since the first days of full-scale invasion of the terrorist state. The defence ministries of both countries closely cooperate on the needs for the Ukrainian army in weapons and military equipment, as well as on the implementation of joint projects to strengthen the capabilities of the Defence Forces of Ukraine. The Baltic country has provided Ukraine with air defence systems, light infantry weapons, anti-tank weapons, mortars, machine guns, ammunition, as well as armoured vehicles and howitzers. Besides that, Lithuania gave Ukraine a lot of Soviet-era weapons, which were necessary to counteract russian federation’s army in the first days of the full-scale invasion.

The Minister of Defence Oleksii Reznikov has repeatedly stressed attention that Ukraine and the Republic of Lithuania coordinates on further steps to defeat the russian federation.

It should be noted that it was the Minister of National Defence of the Republic of Lithuania Arvydas Anušauskas who was the first among foreign ministers of defence to arrive in the Ukrainian capital during a full-scale war in March last year, when russian troops were still stationed in the suburbs of Kyiv