From 10 to 13 March, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius will be paying a working visit to Tokyo and will hold meetings with the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida, the Chair of the Lithuania-Japan Parliamentary Group for Friendship Hirofumi Nakasone, and other high-ranking officials.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 carrying 239 people crashed into the sea, reports Vietnamese state media citing a Navy official. The craft disappeared from radars early on Saturday morning over Vietnamese airspace.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė is attending an extraordinary meeting of the European Council where the situation in Ukraine is being discussed. In Brussels, the heads of state or government of the 28 EU member states and Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk debated the EU's concrete support for Ukraine to stabilize the situation in the country and exchanged views on the security of the whole of Europe and potential measures to strengthen it.

Bordering both Russia and the European Union, Ukraine has wavered for a long time between closer ties with the east or the west. Last year the country was about to sign an association agreement with the EU. When political leaders pulled out at the last minute, it led to months of protests on Maidan, demonstrators being tortured and shot, president Viktor Yanukovych fleeing the country and Russia threatening to intervene militarily. Ukraine's future is in the balance.

On Tuesday, Lithuania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) presented the list of the 18 Ukrainian government's officers to whom Lithuania's sanctions will be imposed. The 18 Ukrainian government's officers will be prohibited to arrive in Lithuania.

Boris Tarasyuk, the Ukrainian government's special envoy for Crimea, told the foreign affairs committee on Monday that Ukraine needed the EU to sign the association agreement as quickly as possible. He called Russia's action "both intervention and aggression" and voiced his gratitude for MEPs' solidarity.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė spoke on the phone with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, to discuss the developments in Ukraine and their possible consequences to the security of the region and the whole of Europe, as well as to coordinate positions of Lithuania and the United Kingdom over immediate measures for a settlement of the conflict.

Lithuania is deeply troubled by today's decision of the Russian Senate to authorise the deployment of Russian military forces to Ukraine. This decision being taken in absence of any international mandate and against the clearly expressed will of Ukrainian Government, it represents a blatant violation by Russia of international law as well as of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. We underline the inadmissibility of the threat or use of force in international relations.

On 27 February, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius began his one-day visit to Kiev by honouring those who were killed on Maidan. The Lithuanian Foreign Minister also met with the Parliament Speaker and Ukraine's Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov, the new Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the head of the Security Service Valentin Nalivaichenko, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrey Dashchitsa, the Minister of Youth and Sport Dmitro Bulatov, Members of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) Borys Tarasyuk and Petro Poroshenko. The Lithuanian Foreign Minister also met with the Lithuanian medical staff who had rushed to Kyiv to provide help.

Only respect for fundamental rights, constructive and respectful dialogue and tolerance can help Venezuela to find a way out of its current violent crisis, MEPs said in a vote on Thursday. They condemned all acts of violence and loss of life and asked for an ad-hoc delegation of the European Parliament to be sent to Venezuela as soon as possible.