He criticized the fact that EU states did not want to touch this money. “I don’t understand how politicians who want to be re-elected want to explain this to their taxpayers.” Tsahkna rejected legal concerns that other countries had previously expressed. “I am convinced that it is legally possible to give frozen Russian assets to Ukraine.” What is now missing in Europe is the “political will”.
Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression, the EU has frozen a good 200 billion euros, mainly from reserves of the Russian central bank. State immunity puts a stop to the confiscation of these funds. The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell therefore suggests using the interest income of around three billion euros per year for weapons and ammunition for Ukraine. This requires consensus among the EU member states. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) supports the plans.
In the debate about ground troops in Ukraine, Estonia’s Foreign Minister Tsahkna did not want to rule out deployment. “I support this discussion, which takes us to a completely new level,” he told the RND newspapers. However, there are “no negotiations about the deployment of ground troops and the Ukrainians are not asking us to station our soldiers on site.”
Instead of ground troops, the West must supply weapons, Tsahkna continued. “I hope that the realization will prevail that it is much cheaper and safer to provide the Ukrainians with ammunition and weapons so that they can fight, rather than thinking about whether we should invade or not,” he continued. “If we don’t help Ukraine in its time of need, we will soon be in need ourselves.”
Tsahkna called on Europe not to be frightened by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Because Putin wants us to be afraid.” If Europe shows Putin that it is not afraid and that it is helping Ukraine militarily, something can be done to counter him.
The discussion about deploying ground troops in Ukraine was sparked last month by French President Emmanuel Macron. At that time, he had not ruled out the use of ground troops by his country in Ukraine. Numerous Western countries, including Germany, then distanced themselves from Macron’s proposal. Macron, on the other hand, reiterated his stance in March.
