Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas expects Germany to make quick and greater contributions to the defense of Ukraine.
"There are big countries that could do more," said Kallas during a visit to Berlin, "the best humanitarian aid these days is military aid for Kyiv." Kallas met with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (both SPD) on Monday together.
It is significantly cheaper to close the material gaps in the Ukrainian armed forces now than to bear the consequences of a defeat later.
"We expect strong leadership from Germany," said the head of government of the Baltic country, which, measured by its population, has raised around seven times the German contribution to Ukraine.
Kallas also addressed Chancellor Olaf Scholz's concerns about nuclear war.
"Russia is very good at addressing the respective fears in different countries." In the Baltic States, Moscow is trying to exploit the Russian-born minorities, in Scandinavia, Sweden and Finland are threatened.
In Germany, nuclear fear is particularly virulent, says Kallas.
There is a lot of disappointment in Europe about the course taken by the federal government.
But she personally also understands Berlin's politics: "Germany has made a U-turn.
A small ship changes its course much more easily than a large tanker.” In democracies, there must also be discussions.
"The problem, however," Kallas continued, "is that Ukraine doesn't have the time." It's also a compliment for Germany that
that Europe hopes for leadership from him.
In concrete terms, for the Baltic states, in addition to military aid for Kyiv, a massive reinforcement of NATO's eastern flank is at stake.
Kallas pleaded for a change of strategy in Berlin.
Instead of the "forward presence", i.e. the presence of light forces as a kind of "trip wire", there should be a strong "forward defence", as NATO had previously conceived.
In the event of an attack, Russia must be “repelled immediately”.
This requires a NATO presence in divisional strength and a common air defense strategy.
The Baltic states wanted to submit a coordinated proposal at the NATO summit in June.
The Estonian Prime Minister said that in addition to the current aid measures in the war, there are further consequences for Russia.
The “Russian war machine” must be hit harder and Moscow must be deprived of all hope that “business as usual” will return to Crimea after an interruption in its aggression, as was the case with Chechnya, Georgia and Crimea.
She is also of the opinion that the reconstruction of Ukraine must be done from Russian reparations.
"Russia needs to know that it has to pay for its war crimes, but also for every house destroyed in Ukraine."