Lithuania's Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevicius has reported that during his visit to the village of Shyrokyne, near the Ukrainian-controlled port city of Mariupol in Donetsk region, on Wednesday he witnessed shelling by militants, who used banned weapons.

"#Minsk in 'action' – shelling continued even during my visit to #Shyrokyne yesterday (w forbidden 82 mm mortar)," he tweeted on Thursday.

He also posted a picture of his meeting with Ukrainian troops in the Anti-Terrorist Operation zone in eastern Ukraine. "Proud to visit #Ukrainian soldiers at frontline (#Shyrokyne) – they defend #freedom & #European values," he tweeted.

Linkevicius was visiting Ukraine on March 15-17. On March 15, he met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to discuss the imprisonment of Nadia Savchenko in Russia, the Minsk peace agreements, reforms in Ukraine and EU support.

Linkevicius also met with students in Mariupol where he announced that Lithuania had allocated 40 scholarships for Ukrainian students to study in that country.