”Last year almost 500 000 Russian tourists were let into Europe, while Ukrainians were dying on the battlefield. This situation needs to be stopped.
That is why we, together with 10 other Member States, have put forward an initiative for new EU visa restrictions for Russian citizens.” @JohanForssell at JHA
Today is the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. For Ukrainians, this is a painful reality that has become part of everyday life.
Since 2022 alone, Russia has killed 707 Ukrainian children, injured 2,548, and left 2,318 missing. The youngest victim was just two days old - born and killed in a maternity hospital.
These figures may be far higher, as the full truth about what has happened in the temporarily occupied territories remains unknown. In addition, at least 20,470 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia or forcibly displaced.
Eternal memory to all the children whose lives have been taken by Russia's aggression...
While Ukrainians are dying, Russians should not be vacationing on European beaches.
In a joint letter, Estonia and 10 other countries have proposed new measures to limit the issuance of EU tourist visas to Russian citizens.
🕯💔 During the missile attack on Kyiv on the night of June 2, a 29-year-old woman named Veronika was killed. She was running to a shelter with her two young sons.
The older boy is almost 5 years old, and the younger one is nearly 3.
A missile struck behind them.
One of the boys was saved by a stranger and suffered only a bruise. The other underwent surgery.
The children still do not know that their mother is gone.
Relatives say that Veronika was a wonderful mother, a kind person, and worked as a stylist and nail technician.
🕯 May her memory be eternal.
Remember the pig heads at the Paris mosques? Or the Jewish centers painted green?
I knew exactly whose work it was the moment I saw it. Now — I finally have the proof. 🧵 [1/19]
Russians killed Veronika during last night’s shelling of Kyiv. One of her sons lost a leg and spent hours trapped in a shelter with his leg torn apart before he could be rescued.
The fate of her other son is still unknown. It is also unknown what happened to Veronika’s mother, the boys’ grandmother.
He was only three years old😭
Born during Russia’s full-scale invasion, he never had the chance to know what peace feels like.
The war he was born into is the war that killed him.
This is not a movie about meteor showers before the apocalypse; this is Russia bombing Kyiv last night. A city with several million people in it - children, the elderly, and normal families just like yours.
Who says high defence spending is unpopular? Living next to Russia tends to focus the mind. Estonians’ willingness to defend their country against aggression ranks among the highest in the world. 💪🏻 Si vis pacem, para bellum — if you want peace, prepare for war.
The Estonian 🇪🇪will to defend remains strong.
▪️81% of residents support armed resistance if attacked.
▪️62% are ready to participate in defence activities
▪️Over two-thirds back defence spending of 5% of GDP or more.
Learn more: https://t.co/pCAKzAa5YL
#WeAreNATO
На фото Марья Лийвала, посол Финляндии в РФ, стоит на месте памятника финнам, погибшим в советских лагерях для военнопленных.
А самого памятника нет.
Его уничтожили месяц назад.
Зато Дзержинского на Лубянскую площадь собираются вернуть.
Многое говорит о современной России.
Putin is in trouble. This is precisely the wrong moment to offer him a way out.
Keep calm and stay the course. Our strategy is working.
To those concerned about the risks posed by a losing aggressor, remember: aggression succeeding would be far more dangerous.
The last thing Europe should do is self-deter.
France, with support from its partners including the UK, has intercepted the sanctioned oil tanker Tagor in the Atlantic, French President Emmanuel Macron said.
Sailing under the flag of Madagascar, the tanker departed Russia’s Murmansk port in early May.
Video: @EmmanuelMacron
The foundation of deterrence is the will to defend. 🇪🇪
81% of Estonians support armed resistance in case of an attack.
62% would personally step up to defend the country.
More than two-thirds support defence spending at or above 5% of GDP.
New survey by @MoD_Estonia 👇
https://t.co/gOImMXf2Vw
OTD in 1990 at the Washington Summit G H Bush told Gorbachev that the USA would *not* make any promise regarding new members joining NATO.
He said USA wanted a "Europe whole and free" and cannot accept agreements limiting nations' rights to choose alliances".
Ever since Putin’s 2022 blitzkrieg failed, his theory of victory has rested on a single assumption: that time was on its side, and that sooner or later the West would offer at the negotiating table what Moscow could not achieve on the battlefield.
Now, as that illusion fades, the Kremlin is escalating tensions with NATO in a last attempt to lure the West into a negotiation trap, fracture support for Ukraine, and divert us from our course.
We see this strategy for what it is. And our message remains: the only way to end the suffering is simple: end the aggression, withdraw behind Russia’s internationally recognized borders, and stay there.