It was also attended by Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna, European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, Romanian Minister for Foreign Affairs Luminiţa Odobescu, and German Minister for Europe and Climate Affairs Anna Lührmann.
Without Ukraine, and also Moldova, the EU peace project is not complete, the Prime Minister noted, recalling that geopolitical grey areas will continue to mean insecurity and instability on the continent.
"The will of free societies and implementation of reforms are key conditions for EU enlargement. Russia's voice and imperial ambitions cannot dictate the EU's agenda and the future of the countries seeking membership", the Prime Minister said.
Lithuania's membership of the European Union is an example of continued success, the Prime Minister added, but today's reality of Ukraine's aspirations to become part of the EU family is unfortunately different - not only because of the need for Ukrainians to defend their independence and territorial integrity, but also because of the increased opportunities for misinformation, misdirection and discrediting of membership efforts, which are being given considerable attention and resources by Russia.
"Twenty years ago, there was also talk that the accession of new EU members would hurt the Community economy, but the opposite has happened, and in fact the EU has grown stronger with each new enlargement. What weakens the EU are the grey areas around us - they must not remain. Grey areas mean that these countries will eventually be attacked, and we know the name of the one who will do it sooner or later", said Ms Šimonytė.
In the debate, the Prime Minister also stressed the need not to repeat the mistakes of the past, which allowed the Kremlin to exploit Europe's dependence on Russian energy resources, and to change the perspective on the Russian regime.
"Putin's regime is untethered by democratic checks and balances, free elections, an independent media and an impartial judiciary, so supporting Ukraine's victory and strengthening our own defence and resilience are the only credible ways of stopping Russian aggression," the Prime Minister said.
The Ukraine Recovery Conference is an international format for supporting Ukraine. Until Russia's large-scale military invasion of Ukraine, it functioned as the Ukraine Reform Conference, which was also held in Lithuania in 2021.
