Estonia Ready to Deploy Troop Company to Ukraine

Estonia is ready to deploy a company of its troops to Ukraine as part of an international deterrence force.

Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal stated this.

In this way, the country is prepared to contribute to the “coalition of the willing,” led by the United Kingdom and France, which offers security guarantees to Ukraine.

According to the Prime Minister, planning for the Coalition of the Willing is still ongoing, but Estonia is ready to provide a combat unit from its land forces of up to company size, as well as training instructors and staff officers.

“Before deploying the unit, we will, of course, seek a mandate from the Riigikogu (parliament),” he added.

Michal stated that Estonia still believes the best way to guarantee Ukraine’s security is through its membership in NATO.

“If NATO membership takes time, Ukraine should be guaranteed deterrence and defense measures from allied forces based on its territory,” the Prime Minister noted.

He emphasized that “Ukraine’s security is Europe’s security.”

“An independent, sovereign Ukraine, part of the European family, is the best strategic guarantee against Moscow’s imperialism for all of us. We must show that we can do good things with good intentions,” Michal stated.

Amid Estonia’s desire to contribute troops to the “coalition of the willing,” The Times, citing its own sources, reported that Europe will be unable to assemble a 25,000-strong force to establish deterrence forces on Ukrainian territory. This is attributed to the insufficient number of active personnel in European armies.

European partners expressed their doubts to Secretary of State John Healey, as ensuring a constant presence of 25,000 soldiers over two years with rotations would require the involvement of approximately 256,000 military personnel.

“Russia has 800,000 soldiers. I’ll tell you this: if we can’t even gather 64,000, it doesn’t look like weakness—it is weakness,” Dovilė Šakalienė, the Minister of Defense of Lithuania, said.