'If Lithuania had not become a member of NATO, I am almost certain that we would be fighting by now, too,' a local official told Newsweek.
Like Ukraine, Lithuania shares a border with Russia, and Vilnius is located just 20 miles from its border with Russian ally Belarus. But it is far more secure than Kyiv, which sits 360 miles from its border with Belarus. That is due to one simple fact: Lithuania is a member of NATO, a status it achieved in 2004 in a wave of expansion that also included Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
, between January 24, 2022 and February 24, 2023, Lithuania has been the world's number three contributor in terms of aid to Ukraine as a percentage of GDP at 0.93 percent, trailing only its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia . The U.S. is 10th at 0.37 percent, trailing, among others, Norway, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
The support is visible on the streets of Vilnius, where Ukraine's blue-and-yellow national flag is, if anything, displayed even more prominently than the yellow-green-red Lithuanian tricolor or the NATO andAn advertisement on a bus in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 11, 2023 advocates providing greater military aid to Ukraine.
"If Lithuania had not become a member of NATO," he added."I am almost certain that we would be fighting by now, too."
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