Lithuanian public television and Ukrainska Pravda reported on Sunday that the Lithuanian government voted last week to allocate almost €33 million ($34 million) for the fiscal year 2025 to pay for the education of Ukrainian refugees in that country.
As of March 2023, about 42,000 Ukrainians had arrived, seeking asylum from the Russian full-scale invasion. That, at least, was the figure for those who had applied for and received temporary residence visas. Those who do not apply to switch their official residences from Ukraine have difficulty accessing social services such as healthcare, child benefits, housing heating assistance, etc.
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Specifically, Lithuania’s Ministry of Education, Science and Sports had requested €4.2 million ($4.33 million) from the Cabinet of Ministers to reimburse the cost of university tuition fees, grants, and scholarships for Ukrainian refugees, and €28.7 million ($29.6 million) for Ukrainian children in preschool, pre-primary and general education in municipal and private schools.
Those funds are limited to native Ukrainians who enrolled in higher education institutions in Lithuania in 2022 and 2023 and are continuing their studies this year.
Some universities have been providing free tuition to those refugees who have no access to such funding.
The Ministry of Finance said that no funds had been planned for this purpose when the 2025-2027 budget was drafted last year, as the government could not predict the number of recipients in advance or how much funding would be required.
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Additionally, Vilnius City Council has decided to change the procedure for settling Ukrainian refugees. Newly arrived refugees to the Lithuanian capital were afforded free rent in municipal housing for up to six months.
In October 2024, the Lithuanian government announced it would provide a one-time payment of €176 ($182) to newly arrived refugees, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
Almost a million euros for drones
Ukraine has been top of mind for Lithuanians recently, as the country’s president Gitanas Nauseda on Sunday announced that the Baltic states had joined the European power grid after severing ties with the Russian network. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania feared that they could be targeted by Moscow, by blackmailing them using electricity supplies.
Meanwhile, Estonian President Alar Karis on Sunday urged the European Union to effect a full trade embargo on Russia.
European Union should boost independence even further & end all Russian energy imports to the EU. We should even seriously consider a full trade embargo on Russia. pic.twitter.com/CUBQHYHuGo
— Alar Karis (@AlarKaris) February 9, 2025
Lithuania is once again holding its “Radarom!” campaign, and so far has raised nearly €900,000 in just one week for drones to donate to Kyiv.
The campaign reported that Lithuanian citizens and businesses had donated €887,225 by Sunday. Two-thirds of the funds raised will go toward drones and anti-drone systems produced in Lithuania, while the remaining third will be allocated for equipment made in Ukraine.
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