The local administration is willing to accept them, however, health officials and politicians are convinced that an exception made for the Ukrainians would create a precedent to employ citizens of many other countries under exceptional conditions.

“Up until now, we, Lithuanians, supported Ukraine by words, clothing and canned food only. We now have an opportunity to help the country’s doctors escape a war zone and let them help us by employing them,” Akmenė Mayor Vitalijus Mitrofanovas said.

Jonas Bartlingas, the head of the Health Ministry’s Healthcare Resources Management Division, said the possibility of employing Ukrainian doctors in Lithuania, first of all, has to do with recognition of their professional qualifications, adding that the doctors would have to have a license and speak Lithuanian.