In Lithuania, part of the aid intended for Ukrainians was provided to Russians and Belarusians
Photo: Depositphotos

In Lithuania, part of the assistance provided by the European Union specifically to support citizens of Ukraine was also received by citizens of other countries – including Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and more than 40 other countries. This is reported by the Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT.

The project "Assistance to Refugees from the War in Ukraine" was implemented in 2022–2023 under the supervision of the European Social Fund Agency (ESFA), which manages EU investments in Lithuania.

Almost 17 million euros were allocated for the project. It was implemented by the Lithuanian Employment Service, as refugees were employed at enterprises, and employers received subsidies for this.

Read also
Negotiations or war – both await Ukraine

The assistance included language courses, legal support, provision of hygiene products, food, medicines, as well as subsidized employment.

However, the State Control of Lithuania found that at least 813 people who are not citizens of Ukraine received similar services.

In this regard, the country is forced to return over 1 million euros spent on citizens of other countries to the European Union budget.

The incident has already led to the dismissal of ESFA head Lina Nevinskiene, and the Lithuanian Ministry of Social Protection and Labor has initiated an internal audit.

ESFA, for its part, insists that at the time of the project's implementation, the rules allowed for some services to be provided not only to Ukrainians, but also to other socially vulnerable persons who were legally in Lithuania.

At the same time, the State Audit Office of Lithuania indicates that, according to the terms of the project, assistance was to be provided only to Ukrainians fleeing the war.

The audit also revealed discrepancies in the data: while the State Audit Office of Lithuania counted 813 people who were not eligible to participate in the project, the ESFA agency itself recognizes only 484 such cases.