Daiva Ulbinaitė, the president's adviser, told BNS that a meeting of five heads-of-state was now planned in Ukraine but not in Yalta.
"The president will go to Ukraine," Ulbinaitė said, confirming that Grybauskaitė's visit to Ukraine would also include a meeting with imprisoned former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
In Ulbinaitė's words, participants at the meeting will include leaders of Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Moldova.
The venue of the meeting is yet to be finalized, the preliminary plan is to hold the meeting in Kiev.
The Ukrainian president-initiated summit in Yalta was called off after leaders of Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Bulgaria said they would not attend. Polish and Slovak presidents intended to be present at the summit.
Sound decision
Lithuania's Parliamentary Speaker Irena Degutienė says that President Dalia Grybauskaitė's decision to go to Ukraine is sound, as the country needs help in correcting the mistakes it has made in the past.
"I believe the decision is correct. I usually do not comment on the president's decisions in the field she is in charge of according to the Constitution. However, I understand that we should keep our relations with Ukraine friendly, help them correct the mistakes that emerge on its path to the European Union (EU), we cannot turn a blind eye on human rights violations," Degutienė said in an interview to Žiniu Radijas news radio on Wednesday.
"I believe the president will have the opportunity to meet with Tymoshenko and get first-hand information about what is going on in Ukraine today, then meet with Ukraine's president and tell him openly what road they may walk, if they draw no conclusions from human rights violations and turn their backs on democratic processes," Degutienė said in comment of the president's upcoming trip to Ukraine.
In her words, without attention and failure to sign an agreement on deeper relations with the EU, Ukraine "may opt for a different economic and political integration, i.e., in the Eastern direction."
