Estonian Defense Minister To Visit Ukraine Next Week

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur intends to come on a visit to Ukraine early next week.

The defense chief announced this on the doorstep of the EU defense ministerial in Warsaw, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“I will be in Kyiv on Monday and I will give all the information on what we will send to Ukraine. I will give this information to my Ukrainian colleague Rustem Umerov,” Pevkur said.

He recalled that Estonia had just completed a program to provide aid to Ukraine in the amount of 0.25% of its GDP.

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“And, of course, we decided that we will continue with this help constantly. A couple of weeks ago, we also decided to send additional 10,000 units of 155-mm artillery rounds and 750,000 food packages, etc.,” Pevkur informed.

He also stressed the need to increase military assistance to Ukraine at the European level. Therefore, he called for new initiatives to be agreed on as soon as possible regarding 2 million artillery rounds for Ukraine, as proposed by the European Commission. The politician called this a very important move and expressed hope that a consensus would be found as soon as possible.

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“Ukraine needs to have a better position for negotiations, and they need to get as much of our assistance as we can give,” the head of the Defense Ministry emphasized.

Regarding increasing Europe's military readiness, Estonia believes it is necessary to invest more in defense.

“We are trying to show with our leadership that it is necessary to increase defense spending as soon as possible. We will go to 5%, maybe even above, already from the next year,” Pevkur said.

According to the head of the Ministry of Defense, this level, at least 5% or even more, will be maintained in Estonia for at least the next four years and, it is possible,“the next decade.”

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“This will probably be a new level, and we will be discussing that in parliament to be for the next decades on the 5% level,” the minister said and expressed the hope that more countries will follow the same path.

If Europe wants to be better prepared, it should stop just talking about it, it is time to make decisions and act, the Estonian politician noted.

As reported, an informal meeting of defense ministers of the European Union countries is taking place in Warsaw on April 3.

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