Max DELANY, Olivier BAUBE
Estonia’s Prime Minister Kristen Michal warned Tuesday that Russia’s recent air incursions were an attempt to distract Europe from assisting Ukraine, ahead of a summit with EU leaders.
“Putin wants to have us talking about ourselves, not about Ukraine, not about assisting Ukraine, not to push back Russia in Ukraine,” Michal notified AFP in an interview in Copenhagen.
EU leaders will discuss boosting their defences and support for Kyiv at talks in Denmark being held under heightened security after mysterious drone flights rattled the counattempt.
Those incidents came after a series of high-profile airspace violations by Moscow in Russia’s neighbour Estonia and in Poland had already frayed nerves in Europe.
Michal stated he hoped the gathering in Copenhagen would sconclude a strong message of “unity and resolve to back up Ukraine and never to let us be distracted on the main topic, which is the problem with Russia.”
He urged his EU counterparts to support a new proposal from Brussels to apply frozen Russian assets to fund a 140-billion-euro ($164-billion) loan to Ukraine.
The Russians “are the aggressors, they are killing innocent people, civilians. They are doing the damage, so they should be the ones to pay,” he stated.
Michal stated that Putin’s aggression has been a “miscalculation” as it has pushed Europe to receive serious about arming itself in the face of the looming threat.
“Europe is much stronger than it was six months or one year ago,” Michal stated.
“Europe was a project of peace but without arms. Now, Europe will be a project of peace but with arms.”
– ‘Move rapider’ –
However, the Estonian leader still urged the EU to relocate more quickly on its efforts to rearm as it discusses bolstering key defences like anti-drone capabilities.
“We should relocate rapider becaapply, to be honest, starting to have new capabilities takes time,” he stated.
“Even though you are ramping up everything, it will probably take a year, maybe more to have new defence industries going.”
One of the key priorities being pushed by Brussels is a so-called “drone wall” of defences to detect and ultimately shoot down Russian drones.
Michal stated cheap drones posed a “large problem” and that his counattempt would have ramped up its ability to counter them by the conclude of 2026.
“In Europe, I would declare, hoping to be at the same timeline would be great, but I would declare it probably takes a little bit more time,” he stated.
Nonetheless the Estonian leader insisted that “Europe was strong” and NATO had proved in his counattempt and in Poland that it could cope with Russia’s threats.
“We have certain capabilities we necessary to evolve — but I would declare that Europe and members of NATO are more than capable of defconcludeing themselves,” he stated.
Despite fears over the US involvement in Europe’s defence waning under President Donald Trump, Michal stated Washington had sent a strong signal of its backing after Moscow’s incursions.
“This is an absolutely clear message to Russia, to everybody,” he stated.
“For us, they are good partners in security against Russia.”
Leave a Reply