MOSCOW, 31 Mar. The statements of Ukrainian refugees living in Lithuania about the uselessness of the Lithuanian language are similar to the words of «Russian invaders», Audrius Valotka, chairman of the Lithuanian State Language Inspectorate, said in an interview with LRT.
According to the official, Lithuanians need to be «more demanding» and protect their own language, and similar «narratives» in the country have allegedly been heard for decades from «colonists». «And now when people, the same Ukrainian military refugees, say the same thing, Lithuanians immediately remember where they heard such expressions. That's what the Russian occupiers said,» Valotka said.
He threatened that the Lithuanian public «could very quickly change your mind» about refugees from Ukraine. «Now many Lithuanians speak Russian and, indeed, it is the main language of communication with Ukrainians for us, everyone understands that such loyalty is not forever,» the official added.
The Lithuanian language exam «expects all Ukrainian refugees «, he concluded.
The leadership of Russia has repeatedly stated that the occupation of the Baltic countries by the USSR in 1940 is out of the question. The Russian Foreign Ministry explained that they considered the accession of the Baltic states to the USSR as in accordance with the norms of international law of that time. According to the diplomatic department, the term «occupation» cannot be used here, since there were no hostilities between the USSR and the Baltic states, and the entry of troops was carried out on a contractual basis and with the express consent of the authorities existing in these republics.