A court in Lithuania has sentenced Lukas Vaičekonis, a 28-year-old rideshare driver from Pasvalys district, to 90 days in prison — consolidated from a previous sentence — for stealing a Ukrainian flag from the Special Investigation Service (STT) building in Panevėžys and smashing the windows of a car with Ukrainian license plates. The verdict was reported by LRT.
The incident occurred in June 2024. During the night, the Ukrainian flag — complete with wooden pole and metal tip — disappeared from the STT building on Vasario 16-osios Street. Police found it the same night in a different part of the city, pushed through the shattered glass of a Toyota bearing Ukrainian registration plates.
Vaičekonis confessed to removing the flag from the building and smashing all the windows of the car with a hammer before inserting the flag inside. He chose that specific vehicle because of its Ukrainian license plates. According to the prosecutor who led the pre-trial investigation, Mindaugas Ražauskas, "the suspect admits his guilt and states that by his actions he expressed a negative attitude toward war refugees from Ukraine living in Lithuania and toward Lithuania's support for that country."
Car belonged to Lithuanian man whose family fled Russian bombing
The Toyota did not belong to a Ukrainian. It was the property of a Lithuanian man who had started a family in Ukraine before the war. When Russian forces began bombing his wife and children's home, they drove the car to join him in Panevėžys — making it, in effect, the vehicle of a Lithuanian family displaced by the Russian invasion.
Vaičekonis, who was himself a former emigrant and had a criminal record from abroad, told investigators during the pre-trial process that he objected to Ukrainian war refugees receiving social guarantees and financial support in Lithuania. He also claimed that Ukrainians "agree to work for less, and therefore take jobs away from locals."
The Panevėžys District Court found him guilty of desecrating the symbol of a foreign state, inciting hatred against a national group, and disturbing public order. He was ordered to serve his sentence at Šiauliai Prison. The court also ordered him to pay the car owner €1,400 in material damages, €700 in non-material damages, annual interest of 5%, and €587 to cover the legal representation costs of the victim.
Brother convicted in same case for identity fraud
In a related case, Vaičekonis's younger brother, Matas Vaičekonis — described by the court as a recidivist with multiple prior convictions — was convicted for using his older brother's identity documents when applying for work. The court sentenced him to 11 months of restricted freedom, consolidated with unserved portions of previous sentences, plus a €2,400 fine. He was ordered to undergo treatment for alcoholism, prohibited from consuming alcohol or other psychoactive substances, and required to participate in a behavioral correction program. The verdict may be appealed to the Panevėžys Regional Court, according to LRT.
Some 174,000 foreigners were living in Lithuania at the start of 2025 - 6% of the country's total population, according to Lithuania's Migration Department. In 2024 alone, 51,757 people immigrated to Lithuania, mostly from Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, India, and Tajikistan. In 2023, Lithuania issued 84% of all its first residence permits for work reasons — the second-highest share in the EU, after Croatia, according to Eurostat.
