Estonian minister: contacts with Russia cannot return to pre-Feb. 24 times

TALLINN - Andres Sutt, Estonia's minister of entrepreneurship and information technology and acting foreign minister, met with Helga Maria Schmid, secretary general of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), in Tallinn on Wednesday.

The meeting covered Russia’s war in Ukraine and issues related to the OSCEs future.

"At today's meeting, I reaffirmed that Estonia considered it crucial for the OSCE to continue supporting Ukraine and isolating Russia. With its war against Ukraine, which is in its fourth month, Russia has violated all fundamental principles of the OSCE and shattered the security architecture based on cooperation. We cannot return to the era preceding Feb. 24, which is why there can be no return to regular work and communication with Russia in the OSCE before the war has ended and Russia has credibly and visibly returned to meeting its OSCE commitments," Sutt said.

The minister highlighted the second independent expert mission established by the OSCE (the so-called Moscow Mechanism), aimed at recording and investigating the violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed in Ukraine during the war.

"Estonia considers it vital to identify all violations of international law by Russia, and hold all perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity accountable. This is why Estonia is among the countries who launched this and the previous mission. Attacks against innocent civilians and causing enormous human suffering is unacceptable," Sutt said.