Putin escalating war against Ukraine all time, will continue to do so - Estonian defense minister
Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur has said that the Russian Federation is constantly escalating the situation during the war against Ukraine, Putin's goal is to show the weakness of the West and he would like to restore the Russian empire.
"When we look at the situation on the battlefield now, and at the actions last night, we see that the Russians will do more, and they will try to escalate. Putin has been escalating this war all the time. And fortunately, we have to say that Ukraine has succeeded in fighting back. But every day there is an escalation," Pevkur said during the 16th annual Kyiv Security Forum (KSF), founded by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Open Ukraine Foundation.
The minister pointed out that de-escalation is the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory, but the occupiers "still want to move forward."
"So, next, we will probably see that Putin will have more free hands and he no longer has borders," Pevkur added.
He also wondered why "we are in this situation" and why the West cannot send enough aid to Ukraine, which is necessary to oust Russia.
"We need to look at some facts, one of which is that in the member states of the European Union, investments in defense from 1999 to the full escalation of the war in 2022 in Ukraine amounted to only 19.7% more. The increase in defense spending amounted to 19.7%. During the same time, Russia's defense spending has increased to 292%," the defense minister said.
So, he stressed that Russia was preparing for a big war, "as many say, a war with NATO." However, it is not ready for a full-scale war with the alliance right now.
"Putin's ultimate goal is not Ukraine, the ultimate goal is to show that the West is weak, NATO is not functioning, and of course, he would also like to restore the Russian old empire. So, there are many reasons why Putin wants escalation, and our task now is to figure out what we will do or how we will solve this, knowing that Putin will escalate also in the coming months and maybe even weeks," Pevkur said.
In addition, he noted that Putin was not re-elected president of the Russian Federation, but he was reassigned because there were no elections in the country.