PRAGUE -- Is Russian President Vladimir Putin really ready to commit to a cease-fire in the war against Ukraine? Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys doesn't think so.
Speaking in an interview with RFE/RL, Budrys said that, from what we see coming from Putin about ending Europe's largest and deadliest conflict since World War II, "he's not interested at all."
"Either in a cease-fire or real peace talk. Because the only instrument that he knows how to use, that's brutal force, terror and pressure,” Budrys said in the interview at RFE/RL's Prague headquarters on May 19.
The interview came on the same day US President Donald Trump spoke with Putin in a two-hour phone call that ended with a pledge to immediately start cease-fire negotiations, though the Russian leader's comments afterward put a gradual time frame on the process, saying the efforts were "generally on the right track."
Since taking office, Trump has repeatedly promised to end the war while American diplomats have negotiated partial cease-fire agreements covering the Black Sea and on civilian infrastructure earlier this year that failed.
Trump is still keen to meet Putin in person in order to potentially strike a deal and -- while being complimentary about the US efforts -- Budrys said he thinks stronger pressure on Moscow may be needed.
“If we are not able to achieve cease-fire at this moment, it shows that all the diplomatic efforts that Trump's administration put, and rightly so, for these months were the ones without the results," he said.
"And that means that we have to introduce the other package of our instruments to achieve cease-fire and then peace. And those instruments are of pressure with additional sanctions and with additional support to Ukraine.”
After the talks that seemed less likely, with Trump indicating that, for the time being, he was not ready to sign on to fresh sanctions Europe is expected to approve later on May 20.
Meanwhile, Republican US lawmaker and close Trump ally Lindsey Graham has proposed imposing 500 percent tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil.
Budrys said he agrees that targeting Russian energy exports could force Moscow to truly start moving toward a peace settlement.
"We should stop the major income to Russia's budget and major income to their war machine. And this is the exports of gas, oil, LNG (liquefied natural gas),” he said.
The EU has failed to impose hard-hitting energy sanctions on the Kremlin over the past two years despite talk of cutbacks. European imports of Russian LNG actually increased in 2024 compared to previous years.
Hungary has indicated that it would veto all types of sectoral sanctions on Russia and the European Commission has instead suggested that Russian gas gradually be phased out of the EU market -- something that wouldn't take full effect until around the end of 2027.
Taking Belarus To Court
On the domestic front, Budrys explained why Vilnius on May 19 decided to take Belarus to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Minsk of organizing the large-scale smuggling of migrants into Lithuania.
The activity started back in 2021 when Alyaksandr Lukashenko's regime began attracting migrants, notably from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen to Belarus and pushing them to cross the borders into European Union countries, such as Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.
While all three countries have strengthened border controls and the European Union has sanctioned Minsk over the practice, Vilnius has now gone one step further, Budrys said.
“From the Belarusian side, they are repeating attempts to come back to this practice again. That's why we need accountability, and we need the international community to see that it's not the way you're organizing and weaponizing the people against your neighbor,” he said.
The legal route also acts as a deterrent, according to Budrys, as “we cannot leave without accountability, because in the future they [such actions] will be repeated by others."
"And that is why Russia now is allowed to rewrite the history and tell a different story about the Soviet crimes, because Soviet crimes were never brought to a special tribunal, and they were never then accused and then sentenced for it, differently from the Nazi regimes," he said.
