Valdas Bartkevičius: “In Lithuania parents of Ukrainian families sent their children to Russian-language schools because they’re so ‘privykli’”

Valdas Bartkevičius is a citizen of Lithuania, a volunteer and a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who now, together with his comrades as part of the 33 separate assault regiment (OSR), is holding back the Russian onslaught on the Kramatorsk direction. For years he helped the Ukrainian army with vehicles, and after an unsuccessful assassination attempt on him by Russian intelligence services he joined the ranks of the Defense Forces.

About how Russian agents in Lithuania try to discredit the volunteer movement, about Moscow’s information operations, about the Russification of Lithuanian youth and Ukrainian children in Lithuania — Valdas Bartkevičius told KyivVlada in an interview.

KV: Valdas, for a long time you were a volunteer, delivering vehicles for the Ukrainian military. Now you’re a volunteer within the Armed Forces of Ukraine. What prompted your decision to join our war against the Russian invasion?

Valdas Bartkevičius: I haven’t given up volunteer work even now. As for my involvement in Ukraine’s armed resistance against the aggression of the so-called RF — there are several components.

The first is that this is how I can show and prove by my own example that for Ukraine’s victory one can and must do more. The second, stemming from the first, is the example that civic activism is an effective force present in the modern Ukrainian army, and this civic activism is capable of defending the country. The third component is my public stance. Serving in the Armed Forces helps me better understand and formulate the situation to convey it to my fellow Lithuanians.

And one more component is my personal security. Last year Russians tried to kill me in Lithuania. Here, in Ukraine, with my comrades and a weapon in my hands — it’s safer than in Lithuania.

KV: I heard about the attempt on your life by the Russians. Can you tell us more?

Valdas Bartkevičius: This assassination attempt on me and on the leader of the “Bashkir National Political Center,” Ruslan Gabbasov, who is in Lithuania, was planned by Russian intelligence services in the spring of last year. Some participants in the plot have already been detained, but the trial has not yet begun, so many details are unknown to me.

They offered me protection. But a mandatory condition of such protection would be my disappearance from the public sphere, so I refused, because I don’t want to be written off as a person hiding from Russian aggression. We must speak loudly and act without hiding our faces, even if that creates life-threatening risks, because the enemy knows whom they are hunting, and we far from always know from where to expect a strike and how to preempt it.

Moreover, if you disappear from the public sphere, it becomes impossible to fight the wave of Russian propaganda that floods Lithuanian segments of social networks.

KV: In this fight you and your colleagues mostly deal with bots and “useful idiots,” like we do in Ukraine?

Valdas Bartkevičius: I have no doubt that we are fighting precisely Russian agents who rely on bot farms and “useful idiots.” These “useful idiots” don’t believe what we do, don’t believe what’s happening in Ukraine. Or they stubbornly pretend not to believe while following FSB playbooks and Kremlin rubles.

Another point that highlights the Kremlin’s attacks on me — Putin knows about me because of my visit to Sudzha, which the Armed Forces of Ukraine temporarily, unfortunately, liberated two years ago.

KV: So for Russian terrorists you’re a VIP. I won’t ask whether we still have the RPC FSB and many pro-Russian propagandists operating openly in our country, using our wartime freedom of speech — but how is it that in Lithuania, which is in a high-risk zone, Russian and pro-Russian agents operate so freely?

Valdas Bartkevičius: Because of the sluggishness of our leadership and the indifference of many citizens. For example: in 2022 a Russian doctor moved to Lithuania, supposedly a dissident and so on. Within a year he learned Lithuanian, which is one of the very difficult languages.

KV: What indicates that he had learned Lithuanian earlier?

Valdas Bartkevičius: Without a doubt. I lost a civil lawsuit to that doctor. I only learned about it in July from court bailiffs, although the trial took place back in February. No one informed me about the trial. This points to a complete lack of understanding by the judge of the political and security aspects. Or maybe the judge understands — in that case it looks maximally Orwellian.

KV: Playing into Russian agents’ hands ends badly. It’s clear that Lithuanian authorities categorically don’t want to believe in the high likelihood of an attack by the so-called Russia, claiming it’s irrational for Putin and the Kremlin. But the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 was also irrational — and that must be taken into account.

Valdas Bartkevičius: Yes, and some things are being done, but not enough. Because Russia launched one of its classic scenarios — to set us against each other from within.

KV: “Divide and rule” — as old as the Roman world.

Valdas Bartkevičius: The Russians and their agents have started pitting volunteers and charitable foundations against each other. This happens in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. These quarrels lead to reduced donations, and fewer donations lead to less aid for Ukraine and the Armed Forces.

KV: How exactly do the Russians pit volunteers and funds against each other? We need to know this so we don’t fall for the same manipulations.

Valdas Bartkevičius: Through allegations of “misuse of funds.” For example, you raise money to buy a vehicle for the Armed Forces. You collect the funds, the vehicle needs repairs. And across social media it’s said the volunteer should pay for the repairs out of pocket. Or when you drive a car to Ukraine — you need to buy fuel, etc. The same thesis: “let volunteers pay for fuel themselves.” Or there are regular scandals about foundations spending a legally permitted portion of funds on supporting their own operations, although that is ABSOLUTELY LEGAL!

And waves of quarrels are stirred around these theses by “useful idiots” and bots, excuse my language.

“Useful idiots” and bots scream about “one hundred percent absolutely transparent reporting.” In wartime such reporting is impossible — in wartime, which is one continuous force majeure, you cannot ensure “one hundred percent absolutely transparent reporting.” Moreover, in war the winner is not the one with the most transparent bookkeeping, but the one who acts faster and more effectively.

All the reporting we can provide, we provide, as other volunteers and funds do. And demanding perfection from us is like the proverb that “the best is the enemy of the good.” Not to mention that I’m in debt up to my ears, but I’m gradually untangling that.

KV: We also occasionally have so-called “truth-tellers” demanding one hundred percent reporting from charitable funds that work for the Armed Forces.

Valdas Bartkevičius: I don’t know about you, but here that thesis is certainly promoted by Russian and pro-Russian agents who constantly scream about some corruption so terrible that one shouldn’t pay attention to the war in Ukraine. That’s how Russia diverts attention from itself, creating confrontation in Lithuania.

KV: The idea of “corruption worse than war” is also familiar from our internal realities. Corruption is evil. But I always ask such fighters: are you more afraid of a hypothetical bribe — hypothetical, because we hear little concrete evidence — or of occupation by Russia? Where corruption has been elevated to state ideology and reflects its own internal sores onto everyone else. What are Lithuanian state bodies doing to counter this propaganda on the part of the so-called RF?

Valdas Bartkevičius: In my opinion, and not only mine, the state does nothing in the information field. There are private initiatives, no-name initiatives, grant programs. But there is no state resistance. Private initiatives are insufficiently resourced. No-names are insufficiently effective, because they’re no-names. And grant programs are simply ineffective, to put it politely, formal.

Because of this, most residents of Lithuania still don’t realize that war is not just nearby — war can come to our homes tomorrow. And there are some bloggers who come to Kyiv and then flood with video reports that everything in Kyiv is fine. We are also now sitting in an ordinary café, nothing is falling, the market works — and they push this heavily to create the impression that the war is not so terrible. But to go to Kharkiv, to Sumy, to Zaporizhzhia, to Odesa or to the frontline — these bloggers don’t want to.

KV: They could visit Lukianivka, Shuliavka, Sviatoshyn, Vyshneve or Vasylkiv — you don’t even have to go far to show the war.

Valdas Bartkevičius: But they don’t go there. So the real situation in Ukraine is shown to Lithuanians only by volunteers. I already mentioned grant programs — there are hundreds, if not thousands, of such characters in Ukraine. They participate in conferences and forums. But who among them afterward produces adequate posts or videos? Very few.

Even among the volunteers who deliver cars to the front — only a few cover the situation. We calculated: for 700 cars — two adequate texts. How is that possible?

And there are fewer volunteers now because due to the propaganda of the Russian agents many have withdrawn themselves, fearing they will be harassed because of their connection to collections and money. Even likes are feared to be given.

KV: Still, one must understand that working for victory over Russia is the only right path. And wars don’t run without money. Is this a Soviet pattern in consciousness, that money is bad, and it’s good only to be gray and humble?

Valdas Bartkevičius: Exactly. These are Soviet atavisms that dealing with money, even engaging in entrepreneurship, is bad — it’s like being a shudra among Indians. These narratives are still passed from parents who grew up in the USSR to their children. And so it continues.

KV: So not only are we moving poorly toward normal European standards, but Lithuania can’t get out of the Soviet legacy either?

Valdas Bartkevičius: These atavisms still have power. Because of this “useful idiots” ask questions: why do you need funds, how is it that you pay yourself some money from donations? They don’t realize that this is hard work and you need to live somehow, not to mention that they haven’t read the laws and don’t know that we’re not breaking anything. How do you then explain to them that by helping Ukraine we’re also helping these “useful idiots” not to become victims of war? And that’s exactly what the Russian agents need.

No-name accounts and bots attach themselves to this. Last year the profile “Virtual Partizanka” opened. What kind of partisan is that, where does she supposedly get information and how reliable is it, on what funds is she scattering 24/7 — these questions don’t arise for the “useful idiots.”

And the rollback begins. Yes, we united against Russian influence, we act. But, for example, in 2022 it was said there would be no more Russian ballets in Lithuania, and already in 2023 some “Kyiv theater” comes from Paris with “Swan Lake.” And none of the authorized persons wonder: what is this “Kyiv theater” from Paris in which performers who fled from Odesa dance, and why “Swan Lake”?

KV: Many fleeing, pro-Russian performers from Ukraine earn their living somehow — they create these so-called “Kyiv theaters” or go to Jurmala to a Russian song gathering, like Potap and Nastya, or Olya Polyakova. Although Olya Polyakova is still in Ukraine, it doesn’t bother her to bow to someone like Pugacheva. But we are still, albeit slowly, in process. And Lithuania, if I understand correctly, still isn’t even in the process of derussification and final decolonization?

Valdas Bartkevičius: Until the rooster pecks, as they say. Now we have mass derussification underway. Russian propaganda systematically plays on this, shifting the emphasis to Muslims. And the political class falls for it, because, they say, if you say something about the Russian language, there are political nuances. But about Muslims — supposedly there are no nuances.

I’ll say something unpleasant for Ukrainians. Most of those who fled the war not to the Scandinavian countries or continental Europe but to the Baltic states — communicate in Russian. Because they’re so “privykli.” Learning Lithuanian is difficult; they aren’t “privykli” to Ukrainian. And children from these families were sent to Russian-language schools, which were all already on the verge of closure.

KV: So our children in Lithuania study in the enemy’s language? And our embassy does nothing?

Valdas Bartkevičius: I can’t comment on the work of the Ukrainian embassy in Lithuania. But I must emphasize that all the cultural and educational work that is being done — it’s borscht and embroidered shirts. I don’t see any systemic activity, including from Ukrainian refugees. I think it’s because those who left Ukraine due to the war weren’t people with an active civic position, but people without a position. I say this without any condemnation, because war is rage and fear. But the results are like this.

In my opinion, President Volodymyr Zelensky and your relevant state bodies must address this issue so as not to lose their citizens abroad in every sense. Because those “Little Russians” who go to Meladze’s or Morgenshtern’s concerts — are they really Ukrainians, not by passport but by essence? Or those who tell tales about “westerners” and “easterners” — are they Ukrainians or “Little Russians”?

Our government, and the government of Ukraine, must work on this purposefully, systematically and uncompromisingly. Otherwise we will lose to Russian propaganda and the russkiy mir for a very long time. To overcome it — one must fight constantly, it’s an endless process. It was hard and will be hard, but even a small victory is the right step. And if we can convey something to society, we must definitely convey it and do everything to win and prevail.