Tallinn, Feb 23 (AFP/APP): Estonia’s defence “starts from Ukraine,” the Baltic state’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said Thursday in an interview with AFP on the eve of the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We see clearly that our defence right now starts also from Ukraine because Ukraine is fighting with the same threat… So as long as they are fighting there, they are weakening the same enemy as we have,” Kallas told AFP in English.
Asked about Estonia’s security concerns, Kallas stressed the need to “totally discredit the tool of aggression.”
“If this aggression pays off in Ukraine, then it serves as an invitation to use it elsewhere,” Kallas said.
“Because if it is so that you… go attack another country, another sovereign country, and then you walk away with more territories, more land, more natural resources, then the signal to… all the aggressors, or would-be aggressors, in the world, is that this pays off, use it,” Kallas added.
Estonia, an ex-Soviet country of 1.3 million people, is one of the major donors to Ukraine, having recently said it would increase its military support to the war-torn country to more than one percent of its gross domestic product.
Factoring in not just military support, but also humanitarian and financial aid, Estonia’s support over the past year amounted to 1.07 percent of its GDP, according to the latest data gathered by the German-based Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
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