Rasa Juknevičienė: Russia is strategic threat to Europe

The advance of Putin’s regime must be stopped with no shunning any means, even military.

Such an opinion came at Kyiv Security Forum from Lithuania’s former Defense Minister Rasa Juknevičienė, Ukrinform reports.

“Together with Ukraine we must stop Putin by using all the possible tools, including military”, - Juknevičienė said.

According to her an effective way would be to develop a European energy security system. “It is possible to stop Russia’s imperialistic advance by developing a new European energy security system, which would include Ukraine”, - the former Defense Minister pointed out.

Russia should no longer be considered EU and NATO’s strategic partners, but a strategic threat, she believes.

“Any mentions of a strategic partnership with Russia should be deleted from all NATO and EU documents. At this stage the incumbent regime in the Kremlin must be called a strategic threat”, - Juknevičienė said.

According to her, Europe needs to put maximum effort into reaching energy independence from Russia.

“Energy dependence from a strategic threat is the greatest danger for Europe… Cooperation with Putin is the biggest mistake that we must correct, if it is not too late”, - Lithuania’s former Defense Minister noted.