Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forum'Don't Play With Us.' Estonia Sends Message To Russia With Ukraine Aid
If Russia succeeds in overrunning Ukraine, could the Baltics be next?
This fear has loomed over the nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania since the invasion began nearly a year ago. The former Soviet-bloc states have been the target of Moscows meddling for years. Now the war in Ukraine has given these small countries an opportunity to punch back.
Relative to its size, no nation has been more aggressive in helping Ukraine than Estonia. The small Baltic state has provided Ukraine with nearly $396 million in aidabout half of its defense budget and more than 1% of its gross domestic product. The donations place Estonia, which has just 7,000 active-duty soldiers in its military, among the world leaders. While European giants like Germany had to be coaxed into delivering modern battle tanks to Kyiv, Estonia has handed over whatever it could: anti-tank missiles, howitzers, grenade-launchers, mortars, ammunition, vehicles, communication devices, helmets, body armor, and military food rations. The nation of 1.3 million has taken in more than 60,000 refugees from Ukraine, a higher percentage than any other nation in the European Union.
The outsized support is intended to send a clear message to the Kremlin. Dont play with us, said Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pekvur during a joint-press conference in Tallinn Thursday with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/don-t-play-us-estonia-214443341.html
Wicked Blue
(5,832 posts)And I'd bet they are busy doing it.
ancianita
(36,055 posts)Yep, because the most badass EU nation per square inch is never going back to KGB world.
Hekate
(90,683 posts)any intelligent person/nation understands that unless Putin is stopped he wont stop.
I'm afraid Putin won't stop till he dies of natural causes or someone takes him out. The dude is obsessed.