In a new op-ed, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas of the Baltic nation called for Russia to be brought to justice for war crimes committed in Ukraine.
I am writing this essay because the world has woken up to the horrible scenes from Irpin and Bucha. Kallas wrote in The Economist that we see pictures of mass graves and civilians murdered by Russian troops. According to international law, targeting civilians is a war crime. Ukraine is not a battlefield, it is a crime scene.
Kallas said that Russia was placing civilians at the frontline in order to cause the most harm, and that millions of Ukrainians have fled the country in a desperate search for safety.
Kallas warned that the true scale of the Kremlin's brutality is yet to be seen.
During a press conference in Warsaw, Poland, on Monday, Dmytro Kuleba, the top diplomat of the Ukranian government, expressed similar feelings.
Kallas said thousands are dying in Ukraine because of Russian President Putin.
Although the Soviet Union collapsed, its imperialist ideology never did, according to the leader. She said that the world has let Putin get away with aggressive acts in the past, but that he can't get away with it now.
She said that if that were to happen, his appetite would only grow and more atrocities and human suffering would follow.
Kallas said the war in Ukraine has made it clear why so many countries that were once part of the Soviet Union rushed to join NATO. NATO was blamed by the Kremlin for the tensions between Moscow and the West. Kallas threw cold water on the idea that NATO was to blame for Russia.
The alliance doesn't exist to threaten Russia, it is for defense. She said that it exists to keep tens of millions from being enslaved and slaughtered by dictators.
Kallas said that the decisions made in the days to come will stick with them for a long time.
She called for the world to "dry up" Russia's revenues from fossil fuels. There are growing calls for the EU to cut off Russia from its oil and gas revenue as the war continues. Russian energy imports have been banned by the US.
Kallas called for NATO's presence in the Baltics to be increased in order to send a clear message to Russia. Poland and other NATO countries are concerned that Moscow could expand the war to other countries.
We should be doing everything to make sure that no country will be next. Kallas said that if our strength fails us, the question will be whether NATO is next.
She said thatUkraine is not the victim of a one-time miscalculation by a madman.
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