The Lithuanian foreign minister said that removing Russian President Vladimir Putin from power is the only way to protect the West and its allies from future threats from Moscow.

Diplomat Gabrielius Landsbergis said this in an interview with The Associated Press.

Landsbergis said Putin's annual Victory Day speech was "unpleasant" and the "grim faces" of generals and others are signs of failure in the Ukrainian war. But he said a wounded Putin could be even more dangerous, and that the only way to eliminate the threat is to eliminate him.

"From our point of view, as long as the current regime is in power, the countries around it will be in some degree of danger. Not just Putin, but the whole regime, because, you know, somebody can replace Putin and replace his inner circle, but another Putin can take his place," Landsbergis said.

"And so as long as there is a regime that intends to wage wars outside of Russian territory, the countries around it are in danger. And if one thing has been proven to those who doubted it after 2008 in Georgia, in 2014, when the first war started in Ukraine, it's that Russia is an aggressive country. This is quite understandable," he stressed.

Lithuania is one of the three Baltic states that, among its NATO allies, is probably most concerned about Russia's possible intention to bring them back under Moscow's rule.

Landsbergis said Lithuania enjoys support from NATO allies and other countries in the eastern wing of the alliance. However, he said that Lithuania, along with the other Baltic states - Estonia and Latvia - calls on NATO to strengthen NATO's air and sea defenses, as well as to ensure permanent deployment of Alliance troops in the Baltic states.