UNITED NATIONS, September 19. /TASS/. The Russian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly walked out of the hall before Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, who has claimed that the ongoing Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2017 (West-2017) military drills is a threat to the humankind, took the floor.
Before the Lithuanian leader went up to the rostrum on Tuesday, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Pyotr Ilyichev and Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house raised from their seats and left the hall.
At a meeting with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday, Grybauskaite informed him about "Russia’s actions at the Lithuanian borders, the security situation in the region and the threat to the entire humankind coming from the Zapad-2017 drills," the press service of the Lithuanian head of state said.
Once taking the floor, the Lithuanian president continued her ungrounded verbal attacks on Russia, alleging it was preparing for an aggression against Western countries. "Around one hundred thousand Russian troops are engaged in offensive military exercises "Zapad 2017" on the borders of Baltic States, Poland and even in the Arctic," she claimed. "The Kremlin is rehearsing aggressive scenarios against its neighbours, training its army to attack the West.
Meanwhile, Lithuanian experts say Grybauskaite’s pronouncements in New York were meant to sooth the nation amidst media criticism that being Lithuania’s commander in chief she has left her country at such a moment.