“This is also in our interests”: the head of the Estonian Foreign Ministry on Ukraine’s membership in NATO

Estonia will defend reliable security guarantees for long-term peace in Ukraine, and its membership in the European Union and NATO is in the interests of the Baltic countries and the whole of Europe, said Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsakhna during his visit to Kyiv on January 14, Radio Svoboda reports.

“Estonia understands for itself that the most reliable security guarantee is membership in NATO. And we can endlessly talk about whether it is the right time to extend an invitation to NATO membership for Ukraine… But I am sure that if we support Ukraine, the next steps should be really reliable guarantees for it,” the minister said.

Tsakhna adds that these security guarantees can be partial membership initially, but with a further perspective: “We must understand that full membership in the European Union and NATO for Ukraine provides security guarantees not only for it, but also for Europe. It is also in our interests”

The head of the Estonian foreign policy department is convinced that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not changed his goals and wants not only the destruction of Ukraine, but also encroaches on established norms of international law in the world.

“Everyone wants peace, and they understand that Ukrainians do too. But if there is just a ceasefire, if we just have another Minsk agreement, then there will be no long-term peace,” he said.

Estonia remains one of Ukraine’s permanent partners. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, it has provided one of the largest supports relative to the country’s GDP, both in the military and humanitarian spheres. Minister Tsakhkna says this is because “you are not only fighting for the freedom and independence of your country, you are actually fighting for us.”

The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andriy Sybiga, told reporters that in a conversation with his Estonian colleague, he raised the issue of hybrid attacks by the Russian Federation, the activities of Russia’s “shadow fleet”, as well as the provision of multiple-entry visas for Russians.

“Against the background of the hybrid attacks that Europe is experiencing, we are deeply convinced that it is worth significantly limiting the issuance of multiple-entry visas for citizens of Russia. And we are like-minded here,” says the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

This is Margus Tsakhkn’s fifth visit to Ukraine, since he has been the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia.

In December, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that the Ukrainian army lacks the strength to liberate some territories temporarily occupied by Russia and that diplomatic solutions should be sought. And before that, in a conversation with Sky News, he allowed the end of the hot phase of the war on the condition that the government-controlled part of the Ukrainian territory will be taken under the NATO umbrella, which will allow him to later agree on the return of the occupied territories “by diplomatic means.”

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, answering questions about the prospects of Ukraine’s membership in NATO, said that “it is happening step by step”, but the focus should be on urgent needs.

Instead, Russian Foreign Minister Serhiy Lavrov said the other day that peace in Ukraine is possible only in the event of a refusal to join NATO and Ukraine’s recognition of the inclusion of not only Crimea, which has been occupied since 2014, but also four oblasts, none of which Moscow fully controls, as part of Russia .

Kyiv has repeatedly stated that it cannot agree to any territorial concessions or freezing of the conflict. Such a freeze, according to the Ukrainian authorities, will only help Russia better prepare for a new attack.