Kallas at national defence conference: Russia is trying to achieve its goals through fear

According to Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine has created the most alarming security situation in Europe in the last thirty years. "With the beginning of the war on 24 February, the security environment around us changed significantly. Last week, Russia started mobilisation," said Kallas. The prime minister added that Russia's current attempt to annex another part of Ukrainian territory will never be recognised and must lead to a strong reaction from the international community. "Russia's actions very clearly affect the world order based on international law. All authoritarian leaders are now very carefully observing our response to Russian aggression. Failure to push back against the aggression may serve as an invitation to others," said the prime minister.

The prime minister noted that Russia is trying to achieve its goals through fear. "Russia wants to scare us into not making the decisions we have made. Into not supporting Ukraine. Into adopting a conservative mindset according to which if we paid less attention to Ukraine, we would be safe. This is false. The only thing we should fear is fear itself. The best weapon against fear is awareness," said Kallas. The prime minister added that Estonia, together with friends and allies, must therefore remain steadfast on the chosen path, the focus of which is to support Ukraine. "We must help Ukraine win and continue to increase the price of aggression for Russia," Kallas said.

The prime minister also highlighted that we need to strengthen our independent national defence and the crisis resilience of the entire society, and this is exactly what the new state budget reflects. "We have made important decisions regarding the state budget that concern both national defence and civil protection, as well as directly our people, who are an important part of internal security," said Kallas.

In her speech, the prime minister emphasised that in addition to conventional military action, we cannot ignore hybrid threats. "Hybrid warfare has many facets. Russia is creating migratory pressure on our borders through its military action. We have already seen Russia use energy as a weapon against us when it reduced gas supplies to Europe last summer. We also fend off cyber attacks on a daily basis," said Kallas. The prime minister added that we need to see through Russia's tactics of using hybrid attacks, because it is a tool in the aggressor's arsenal.

Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is also a graduate of the Estonian National Defence Course.

Photos VKB (Jürgen Randma): https://www.flickr.com/photos/stenbockimaja/albums/72177720302438709 and ICDS (Arno Mikkor): https://www.flickr.com/photos/icds_tallinn/sets/72177720302437262/