Lithuania Delivers Requested Arms to Ukraine: Ukrainian Army Spokesperson

KIEV, January 6 (Sputnik) — Ukraine has received the arms that it had previously requested from Lithuania, National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) spokesperson Andriy Lysenko said on Tuesday.

"Minister of National Defense of the Republic of Lithuania Juozas Olekas confirmed delivering the arms that the Ukrainian army requested," Lysenko said at a briefing.

The type of arms delivered to Kiev was not specified at the briefing.

Last November, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite announced plans to share its experience in creating a modern army with Ukrainian forces and invite them to participate in joint training exercises.

Earlier reports indicated Ukraine had requested additional assistance from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to improve the standards of its armed forces and National Guard. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Kiev would receive assistance from NATO members in the form of non-combat as well as combat equipment. He added that NATO would ensure Ukraine's cybersecurity and set up four trust funds aimed at reforming and supporting the country's armed forces.

The Ukrainian parliament abandoned its non-aligned status on December 23, resuming its course to join NATO. Poroshenko said his predecessor's decision to change course in 2010 was a strategic mistake and signed the bill into law, noting that Ukraine would finalize its decision to join the military bloc within five to six years.

Russia's NATO envoy said earlier that the Ukrainian crisis is being used as an excuse to boost the bloc's military presence along the Russian border and keep the threat of a foreign troop build-up on Ukrainian territory open. He added that the Ukrainian legislature's decision delivered an unambiguous blow to European security.