Vilnius gets tough on individuals breaking the loyalty oath.

Lithuania’s Interior Affairs Minister Agnė Bilotaitė signed last week an order to revoke the citizenship from two men whom the country’s security services had identified as members of the Russian military fighting in Ukraine, the outlets Delfi and ELTA reported.

The two individuals are Vitalijus Kazakevičius, born in 1984, and Juozas Samuolis, born in 1978. They lost their rights and privileges as Lithuanians for violating the citizenship law, which requires the government’s permission before joining a foreign army or civilian service.

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In September, Minister Bilotaitė withdraw the Lithuanian citizenship from Kęstutis Kvietkus, a Lithuanian serving in the Russian military in Ukraine.

Whether the now stateless Lithuanians have applied for Russian or other citizenship instead was not immediately clear.

15min, another Lithuanian publication, has counted five Lithuanian nationals fighting for Russia in Ukraine. The number of Lithuanians volunteering for Ukraine’s armed forces against Russia is believed to be of the order of hundreds, though the Vilnius government keeps no official records of them and would not prosecute under the citizenship law.

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