Interviewed in Paris shortly before the opening of the conference in support of Ukraine organized by Emmanuel Macron, the prime minister of Estonia, who was recently put on Moscow's wanted list for "hostile action toward historic memory," recalled that some NATO countries spent more on defense during the Cold War than they do today.
The Europeans must continue to deliver arms because the sad truth of war is that the winner is the one who has the most ammunition. The countries supporting Ukraine have defense budgets far above Russia's, so what are the obstacles to delivering what the Ukrainians need? What more can we do?
Some countries haven't done that much yet. I don't want to single out any particular type of weaponry – each ally has its democratic process for deciding which weapons to deliver and how – but what I am asking is that we provide more. We must prevent Russia from winning, at all costs. There are several things we should have learned from the 1930s, we have to stop the aggressor when we can because everything can move very fast in Europe. When one aggression pays off, it's an incentive to commit others.
We have been united for two years. We agree that the most direct threat to NATO is Russia. When the war started in February 2022, I thought that all NATO members would increase their defense spending. But not all did. And I wonder why. During the Cold War, some spent more, up to 6% of their GDP. Now we're in a hot war!
We have to make sure he doesn't win. We must also continue to isolate him politically and hold him accountable. That's why we need to set up a tribunal to judge the crime of aggression. Here in the West, you may not understand the situation as we do. We have been occupied by Russia. There's a difference between the peace you experienced [after the war] and the peace under occupation, with mass deportations, the eradication of our culture, the death of political leaders.
In NATO, there are no first-class and second-class countries. If Russia wins in Ukraine, the next target will be NATO, meaning France, the UK, the United States, and the Baltic States. Because we have Article 5, which stipulates that an attack on one member country is an attack on all. Putin attacks those he thinks are weak, and if he wins in Ukraine, he'll be more confident. If he thinks NATO is weak, he'll take his chances. That's why we NATO countries need to invest more in our defense.
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