Estonian ForMin: We must continue to politically, economically isolate Russia

Estonia's Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets, who is currently paying a visit to Bucharest, said that Russia must be further isolated in terms of politics and economy, mentioning that it is important that the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations be carried out without military pressure.

Liimets participates in a debate organised by think tank-ul New Strategy Center, at the National Military Centre in Bucharest, alongside Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu.

The international community must continue to support Ukraine. For the Ukrainian side it is important that negotiations be carried out without military pressure. It is important that we see dialogue between the sides, but I thing it is somehow naive to wait for long term results from these discussions. For the international community it is very important to continue supporting Ukraine economy-wise, as well as political-wise, in addition to military aids, so that the Ukrainian forces be able to defend their country until the peace negotiations reach a result. It is important that Russia felt that this is a strategic failure, as it is totally unacceptable to start a wide war in Europe killing thousands of civilians. We must continue to isolate Russia politically and economically, through sanctions, the Estonian Foreign Minister said.

Liimets highlighted that the security situation in the region had changed after Russia breached the international agreements and the basic foundations of the European security architecture.

There is no more confidence towards Russia. That is why we must continue to consolidate security, NATO's deterrence and defence posture, and the security of our countries. At the moment we see the fight between democracies and autocracies and we must focus on the security of our territories and defending democratic values, Eva-Maria Liimets said.

She pleaded for the consolidation of NATO's Eastern Flank and hailed the Alliance's recent decisions, particularly those regarding the creation of four new battlegroups.

We must continue to consolidate the deterrence and defence posture on NATO's Eastern Flank.(...) We see the situation in Europe has changed since 2016, when the member states established the current defence and deterrence posture and the concept of consolidated advanced presence. We have a war in Europe at the present moment and Russia's behaviour is unpredictable. We must make all these changes. We must clearly provide in the strategic concept that Russia represents a threat and stress that NATO's main task is collective defence. (...) In respect to Russia and the security situation in our region, it is clear that we cannot go back to the period before February 24. We must reflect these concerns in our strategic documents. We must reflect that in Europe there is a country that is willing to invade neighbouring sovereign states and we must be prepared to deal with this threat, Eva-Maria Liimets pointed out.

According to the Estonian Minister, Russian President Vladimir Putin's statements referring to the shift in the security environment in Europe are unacceptable and concerning.

Putin said that he would want to change the security environment in Europe. This means they not only want to invade Ukraine, but for NATO to withdraw the troops from our country or for us to cease NATO exercises in our countries or put an end to NATO enlargement. There are many requests from Russia that are unacceptable to us. According to the European security architecture, all sovereign states have the right to choose their security guarantees. Russia wants to change this concept, which is very concerning for us. We all want to see that the peace negotiations are successful and that peace is restored. Unfortunately, at the moment, Russia isn't showing the intention of withdrawing from Ukraine and contributing to restoring the territorial integrity of this country. Ukraine is under a huge pressure, Liimets said.