Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has refused to guarantee that her country's troops will not interfere in the hostilities in Ukraine, ERR reports. Kallas made the statement during the government's information hour, the main topic of which was the situation with French President Emmanuel Macron's statement on sending EU troops to Ukraine.
It is noted that members of the Estonian parliament asked the prime minister whether Estonia plans to send its soldiers to help Ukraine. In response, Kallas initially stated that such a scenario had not been discussed. She also tried to clarify the confusion in terminology.
"There was never any talk of sending in ground troops. No one talked about sending ground troops. In English, it is ground troops, troops on the ground or soldiers on the ground - these are soldiers in a particular country. Moreover, different countries are doing this, different countries are sending soldiers to help Ukrainians with training," Kallas said.
In addition, the Prime Minister noted that in any case, the decision to send Estonian troops to another country is not up to her. This requires a mandate from the Riigikogu. The conservatives demanded that Kallas give guarantees that the Estonian Defense Forces would not interfere in the war. However, she did not give such guarantees.
"I do not make such promises because circumstances can change. According to your interpretation, it seems that anything can be an intervention. Our military aid to Ukraine can also be seen by Russia as interference, because we really want Ukraine to win, we really want Russia to lose and return to its borders. After all, we are doing everything for Ukraine to win. We have clearly chosen a side here, and that side is Ukraine, because Russia is a direct threat to us," Kallas said.