Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius speaking to journalists as he arrived this morning for an EU Foreign Affairs Council -- foreign ministers -- meeting in Brussels.
On the planned French-German-Russian-Ukrainian summit in Minsk on February 11:
"We all expect that there will be some agreement [in Minsk], we all expect that there will be a diplomatic solution. No one wants war, but we can only judge by the developments on the ground. We cannot trust a single word from the Russian leadership currently -- it is worthless, unless proved on the ground."
On a U.S. initiative to provide Ukrainian armed forces with weapons:
"It is a decision for the U.S. [to make]. [There] is some logic behind [it], I personally understand it because Ukraine is withstanding external aggression. The other side is not considering -- they have already made up their minds -- already delivering weapons, sophisticated and heavy weapons. It is cynical, but it is going on exactly during the time of negotiations sometimes. We really should help Ukraine not only financially, economically, politically, but also militarily; not sending soldiers -- that is not [being] discussed -- but at least to support their armed forces with defensive weapons."
From our Brussels correspondent:
More comments on the Ukraine question as foreign ministers arrived for an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels today:
Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak: "I am personally not in favor of sending arms because sending arms to one party inevitably pushes the other party to get more arms from other suppliers. I am very strongly in favor of a political solution. It looks like we are having a momentum, so lets give chance to the political negotiations. I hope that the meeting in Minsk [of French, German, Russian, and Ukrainian leaders on February 11] will deliver some concrete results."
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom: "This is the European way [to negotiate] -- not by answering with more arms and an escalation, but to really see if we can find other ways. Given the way the humanitarian situation looks in Ukraine right now, we should wish that it goes in the right direction and this means no more killing and no more suffering in eastern Ukraine, but rather an attempt to find a political solution. There is no military solution to this."