Estonia offering to rebuild Ukraine using Russia's oil, gas revenues

KYIV. March 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Estonia has proposed to restore Ukraine with money from Russia's oil and gas revenues, so payments from the EU to Russia for energy supplies, as they think in Tallinn, should be temporarily deposited.

"The cost of military action for Russia must be very high, so by the end of the year the EU will reduce the supply of fossil fuels from Russia by two-thirds," Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Eva-Maria Liimets said at a briefing on Wednesday.

"But in order to have an immediate impact and make Russia pay for what was done to Ukraine, last week the Estonian Prime Minister proposed at the EU Council to temporarily deposit payments for Russian gas and oil and use them to rebuild Ukraine," the minister said.

She expressed regret that over the past few days, there have been no special changes in the matter of ending the war of the Russian Federation to Ukraine. "This means that we must actively continue all international efforts to end the war," Liimets said.

According to the minister, it is important that negotiations are underway between Ukraine and Russia, "but there is no progress in them."

"Ukraine is conducting these negotiations under pressure," Liimets said.

She stressed that in connection with the hostilities, Estonia will continue to work in three areas – this is support for Ukraine, strengthening the political and economic isolation of Russia, as well as strengthening its own security.