Prime Minister of Estonia Kaia Kallas said that her country will not extradite its citizens of draft age to Ukraine.
She told about this in an interview with The Kyiv Independent.
According to her, during the visit of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi to Tallinn, they had a conversation about Ukrainian refugees, in particular men of conscription age.
"President Zelenskyi said that there are people who are on the battlefield, and there are people who pay taxes to Ukraine so that the country can finance the military who are on the battlefield. But there are also people who are in other countries, for example in Estonia," the prime minister added.
Kaja Kallas takes the position that such people have the right to be in Estonia as long as they follow the rules. They can also receive temporary protection from the EU.
"Therefore, we will definitely not do anything from our side to betray these people. Ukraine should appeal to the people who are here and ask them to return to help their Motherland," she said.
- In December of last year, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Estonia stated that his country could hand over to Ukraine conscripted Ukrainians who are on Estonian territory.
- Before that, the German publication Bild wrote that the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine plans to draft Ukrainians from abroad into the army, and if they do not agree, then "sanctions will be applied" to them. The Ministry of Defense clarified that Bild shifted the emphasis: in fact, there are no discussions on the mechanisms of conscription into the ranks of the Armed Forces from abroad on the agenda.