Seeder and Ratas: Estonia’s Ukraine policy will not change after elections
Today, President of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) Jüri Ratas and Vice-President of the Riigikogu Helir-Valdor Seeder met with Arsenii Pushkarenko, Head of the Group for Interparliamentary Relations with the Republic of Estonia in the Parliament of Ukraine.
At the meeting of the Vice-President of the Riigikogu with Arsenii Pushkarenko, Helir-Valdor Seeder stated that although currently there was pre-election time in Estonia, Estonia’s support to Ukraine would continue to be steadfast even after the elections. “Estonia’s foreign policy and its policy of supporting Ukraine are cross-party and will not change, no matter which coalition of political parties is in power – I can assure you of that,” Seeder said.
Seeder noted that the visit of US President Joe Biden to Kyiv was very significant and meaningful, and expressed interest in what kind of assistance Ukraine would most need at the front. Grain exports, return of the refugees to Ukraine and Odessa’s candidacy for hosting the EXPO world fair in 2030 were also discussed.
At the meeting of Jüri Ratas and Pushkarenko, the President of the Riigikogu said that he often thought how hard the war was for the people of Ukraine. “You are holding on and you are showing how weak the Russian Federation led by Putin really is because, to be honest, on 24 February 2022 very many people thought that in a few days Kyiv would be taken. A year has gone by, but Kyiv is still in your hands and will remain in your hands.”
Ratas assured that Estonia would keep helping Ukraine, but the continuing support of great powers was also important. “It will all happen in the end. Tanks were not given at the beginning, but eventually they will be given – I believe it will be the same with fighters and you will get them. The problem is that we are losing time and people are dying. But it seems to me that Biden’s visit to Kyiv is significant and historic for countries. I would say that after that it is impossible to think that Ukraine will lose this war, because then everything will have failed,” Ratas said.
Pushkarenko briefed the President and the Vice-President of the Riigikogu on the current state of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and confirmed that the visit of US President Joe Biden to Kyiv was an unexpected event of great symbolic value, which helped to underline the fact that Russia’s plan to conquer Kyiv in three days is not possible in today’s world. According to Pushkarenko, there are twice as many Russian troops on the border as there were a year ago and Putin is rushing the offensive because he knows that Western tanks and other military equipment are on their way to Ukraine. Pushkarenko said that, at the moment, the front had the greatest need for ammunition. He also thanked Estonia for its continuing and comprehensive assistance to Ukraine.
Riigikogu Press Service
Maris Meiessaar
Phone: +372 631 6353, +372 5558 3993
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