Estonia PM rules out return to pre-invasion ‘status quo’
Strasbourg, France, Mar 9 (EFE).- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that began two weeks ago has changed global politics irrevocably, Estonia’s prime minister Kaja Kallas said Wednesday.
“Since the 24th of February, which coincidentally was the 104th anniversary of Estonians’ independence, the world has changed,” Kallas said at the European Parliament.
“President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has ushered in a period of insecurity on our continent that we have not seen since 1939. And like we saw after WWII, our world will not return to the status quo. Russia’s relationship with the outside world will be different,” she said.
She invoked her country’s struggles under the Soviet Union and her personal experience as her family was deported to Siberia when her mother was only six months old.
“We need to keep supporting those fighting for Ukraine’s independence while giving time for the sanctions and isolating measures to work to their full capacity,” she added.
She also highlighted the global efforts to bring Russia before the International Criminal Court, moving towards energy independence from Russia and greater coordination by the EU and Nato to establish a stronger defense of Europe.
“The free world has already begun to respond. And the EU has been at the forefront of this response, which itself is a welcomed change.
“The EU is not normally seen to be a particularly nimble organization. But in terms of security we have changed more in the last couple of weeks than we have in the last 30 years,” she added.
The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, asked European citizens to give up some luxuries to reduce dependency on Russian energy in retaliation for the war in Ukraine.
“What we have done during the coronavirus must be done with Ukraine. A collective commitment to a historic task,” he said.
“Europeans need the sound of the bombs falling on Kyiv at five in the morning a fortnight ago to wake them up from their sleep of well-being, to allow them to face the challenges that we have not looked for but that the world projects on us,” he added. EFE
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