Russia seeks to restore Soviet Union – Lithuanian colonel

For Russia, which aims to regain control over former Soviet territories, capturing Ukraine is critically important, as without it the idea cannot be realized.

The commander of the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union, Colonel Linas Idzelis, stated this in an interview with Ukrinform.

According to him, the Russians are consistent in their policy: "They want to firstly destroy Ukraine and then to keep going, to restore the Soviet Union. Everything started from Belarus, and now they are trying to digest Ukraine. They can't restore the Soviet Union without Ukraine."

Idzelis added that Europe will have time to better prepare for a military conflict with Russia during a period of Russian weakening, "But that preparation must be real, without neglection."

He stressed that reductions in military budgets in Europe must not be allowed, so much depends on politicians.

In his opinion, while Russia's military aggression against Ukraine continues, there is no conventional military threat to Europe, as Russia does not have the capacity to fight simultaneously on multiple fronts.

At the same time, he believes that Lithuania is not threatened by a so-called "Donbas scenario" of the start of Russian military aggression, since "Russian sympathizers don't live densely in some particular area."

According to him, as part of malicious operations to prepare for military aggression, the Kremlin pays attention to influencing public consciousness, so Russian content, which is easily accessible on various platforms, poses a threat.

"When the Soviet Union collapsed, everybody knew the Russian language, watched Russian movies, and among our military many would listen to Russian music, like Lube… Then, we understood that we're doing the wrong thing, but it was perhaps too late," the colonel said.

Not everyone in Lithuania speaks English, and Russian content remains easily accessible via YouTube and other platforms, even though Lithuania has banned Russian TV channels. Therefore, a small part of Lithuanians, he said, has been "poisoned" by Russian content to such an extent that there are no "antibiotics" to help them.

"It's interesting that, despite the fact that we have a Russian ethnic minority in Lithuania, the most "vatniki" are among ethnic Lithuanians who have been brainwashed too much," he added.

As previously reported, in June 2025, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Vladimir Putin seeks to restore the power of the Soviet Union and therefore does not want to end the war in Ukraine.