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Tsahkna in Vilnius: We must shift gear in our aid to Ukraine

Republic of Estonia - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

11.03.2024

Yesterday, 8 March, Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna was in Vilnius to attend the discussion called by French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné to find ways of helping Ukraine to victory. The foreign ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine also attended the meeting.

Foreign Minister Tsahkna welcomed France's recent calls for discussions on helping Ukraine to victory but emphasised that action was more important than words. "The situation on the front is serious. Today's meeting in Vilnius demonstrates that like-minded countries remain determined and are ready to take action so that Ukraine is able to push Russia back," Tsahkna said, affirming that Estonia was working on new military aid packages to Ukraine. "We need to shift gear in our collective assistance to Ukraine. We must do everything we have done so far with added speed and intensity."

Tsahkna underlined the need to keep all the promises on military aid that have been made to Ukraine and set higher target numbers for training Ukrainian troops. At the same time, progress is needed on new initiatives that would help Ukraine defend itself because Russia poses a long-term threat.
"Estonia's calculations show that if all supporters of Ukraine contributed 0.25% of their GDP to military aid to Ukraine every year, Ukraine would be able to win this war very soon," Tsahkna emphasised.

At the meeting, he also spoke about helping Ukraine in the cyber sphere. "While we do not think about it that much, Russia is actually also waging a brutal war against Ukraine online," Tsahkna said, speaking about the Tallinn Mechanism established last year with the aim of boosting civilian cyber support from donors to Ukraine. "Ukraine has shown great resistance to cyberattacks but help from donors is key to reinforcing Ukraine's long-term preparedness to address the damage caused by cyberattacks."

Tsahkna said that using frozen Russian assets in the West to help Ukraine was another crucial step towards Ukraine's victory. "Frozen assets are a valuable resource and using them would improve Ukraine's position on the battlefield significantly and it would help turn the tide in the course of the war," Tsahkna said.

Yesterday's meeting in Vilnius was a follow-up to the 26 February meeting on assisting Ukraine held in Paris on the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron.