TALLINN: Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas urged the West to “discredit” Russia’s tool of aggression in Ukraine to prevent further attacks, in an AFP interview ahead of the invasion anniversary.
“We have to make the cost of this aggression higher than … benefit of this would be,” Kallas said on Thursday (Feb 23) in the Estonian capital Tallinn.
“If this aggression pays off in Ukraine, then it serves as an invitation to use it elsewhere. We have to totally discredit the tool of aggression,” she told AFP.
Otherwise, “the signal to … all the aggressors, or would-be aggressors, in the world, is that this pays off. Use it.”
Estonia, an ex-Soviet republic and now a NATO and EU member bordering Russia, has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine from day one, repeatedly urging its allies to throw their weight behind the war-torn country.
The Baltic state of only 1.3 million people is itself among the most generous donors, with own its support to Ukraine over the past year exceeding one per cent of its GDP.
Asked about finding a balance between sending aid to Kyiv and arming her country, Kallas said Estonia’s defence “starts from Ukraine”.
“So as long as they are fighting there, they are weakening the same enemy as we have.”
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