Prime Minister Kaja Kallas received the Transatlantic Leadership Award from CEPA

It is my honor to accept the Center for European Policy Analysis' 2022 Transatlantic Leadership Award.

The transatlantic alliance for us Estonians is the real-world expression of freedom. When Estonia became free again after half a century of Soviet occupation, strong transatlantic support gave us the backing and inspiration we needed when building up our democracy.

Now in Ukraine we are defending the very same idea of freedom, including the idea of territorial integrity, and sovereignty - that is, the right to exist as a country and the right to live free from repressions.

Russian occupation in Ukraine today tragically reminds us of our own fate under Soviet Russia's occupation. We see towns and cities turned into mass graves. All of Central-Eastern Europe recognizes these pictures. Those of us who are too young to have seen it directly have had parents and grandparents who suffered. We suffered from repressions, deportations, mass killings and attempts to abolish our language and national identity.

As a country bordering Russia, we knew that although the Soviet Union fell, its imperial ideology and ambitions never did. Today Ukraine is not the victim of a one-time miscalculation by a madman. We are witnessing an imperialistic ideology and long-planned campaign with the aim to conquer its neighbors.

The warning signs have been out there for years: Putin tested the reactions of the wider transatlantic community with his land grabs in Georgia, Crimea and Donbas.

The Kremlin's genocidal objective, to eliminate Ukraine and its people, is not going to change - they will work at that for however long it takes. So, we must make sure they cannot do that. And we must not give in one inch. Ursula von der Leyen recently said - and I quote: "This is the time for us to show resolve, not appeasement" - End of quote. This is the right message.

Today the broad transatlantic community is more united, in purpose and action, than it has been for some time. But Russia will keep testing us.

This war is far from over. Ukrainians have proved it is winnable. Ukraine has shown us that high morale and excellent leadership are as important as military power.

Winning the war in Ukraine is to get Russia out of Ukraine completely. These are recent words by President Biden. The way to reach this aim is to keep offering Ukraine quick military aid. Ukraine has used our military aid with skill and determination. The extraordinary support that the U.S. is giving on many different levels, is key here.

While we are very focused on the conventional war Russia is waging against Ukraine, we must not forget there is also a hybrid war and an information war going on. We must pay attention to the stability of our societies - Russia's long-term interest is to divide us - not only us as allies, but also our societies.

We are living at a time when American long-term bipartisan commitment to NATO and to keeping Europe safe is absolutely vital. Russia's genocidal war on NATO's doorstep is the most serious security risk to Europe in our lifetime.

Our long-term commitment to Ukraine is not only necessary for the sake of stopping the mass killings, crimes against humanity and possibly a genocide. It is a matter of the rules-based international order. The success of Ukraine in pushing Russia back to its borders will also be carefully studied by all the dictators and would-be dictators across the globe - the key questions is whether they get encouraged or deterred by our action or inaction.

Should Russia get away with its aggression, it would undermine peace and security around the world - if aggression pays off somewhere, it serves as an invitation elsewhere. No country in the world can then feel safe next to an aggressive neighbour.

Thus, for the wider transatlantic community, it is both the moral obligation as well as a matter of security to continue supporting Ukraine, increase Russian isolation and bring the perpetrators of war crimes to justice.

And it is about upholding our rules-based world order. As Robert Kagan has put it and I quote: "If it is not our system of security and our beliefs shaping the world order, it will be someone else´s. If we don´t preserve the liberal order, it will be replaced by another kind of order, or more likely by disorder and chaos." End of quote.

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