Estonian World Council’s Statement on Russia’s War on Ukraine

10th of April 2022

The unprovoked and brutal war that Putin’s Russia has unleashed on Ukraine is an evil not seen in Europe since World War II. The world is horrified by the premeditated attacks and massacres in Bucha, Mariupol, the railway station in Kramatorsk, and elsewhere in the country. Hospitals, schools and homes are being destroyed. Women and girls are raped by Russian soldiers, civilians are tortured, executed and forcibly rounded up and deported to Russia. Every day brings new war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Putin has grossly miscalculated the will of the Ukrainian people to defend their homeland and survive. He is not winning this war and must not be allowed to do so. If Putin’s regime is not stopped now, it will continue to murder Ukrainians and spread its evil to other parts of Europe.

The Estonian World Council asks the European Union, NATO and its allies to:

• Investigate and prosecute Putin and Russian perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity;
• Expel all Russian diplomats immediately;
• Terminate Russia’s membership in the United Nations Security Council;
• Provide Ukraine with the aircraft, anti-air and anti-missile defense systems, tanks, artillery and sophisticated weaponry it is requesting;
• Maximize sanctions to include energy imports from Russia;
• Freeze Russian assets and make Russia pay reparations to Ukraine;
• Establish a permanent NATO deterrence force in the Baltics.

The world averted its gaze from Russian atrocities in Grozny and Aleppo, and stood by as Putin forcibly annexed Crimea, the Donbas, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Transnistria. The free world needs to live up to its post-WWII commitment of “Never again” and remain united in stopping Russia’s indiscriminate slaughter of innocent people and war of annihilation against Ukraine.

Aho Rebas
President
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Reet Marten Sehr
Chair, Foreign Policy Committee
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