Estonian PM receives Marion Donhoff Prize in Germany

TALLINN – In a ceremony in Hamburg on Sunday, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas received the prestigious Marion Donhoff Prize, recognizing the actions of the Estonian head of government in standing up for democratic values and ensuring the unity of the European Union and NATO in response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

In her speech, Kallas recalled former British prime minister Neville Chamberlain's delight at the 1938 Munich agreements that in fact led to the annexation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany.

"History has proven it over and over again that accommodating Russia will not make it less dangerous. On September 30, 1938, Prime Minister Chamberlain returned from Munich and declared 'Peace for our time' after Germany, Britain, France and Italy reached a settlement allowing Nazi Germany to annex parts of Czechoslovakia. Within a year, Britain and France were at war with Germany. This illustrates that the decisions we take now will either lead to our own Chamberlain moment or will provide a historic moment towards finally breaking Russia's cycle of aggression. It is our responsibility to know better, and to do better," the premier said.

Kallas described what is going on at present, in essence, as a battle of wills. In this battle, we should not be afraid of our own power. And we shouldn't fall into the trap of Russia's disinformation as if supporting Ukraine is a lost cause. That's what Russia wants us to believe, she said.

"Russia's regime remains confident that it has more resolve than we do, still believing it is able to outlast, outproduce and outperform Ukraine and the Euro-Atlantic community. In fact, it is we who have the upper hand in this fight. The combined defense budgets of the Ramstein coalition are more than 13 times greater than Russia's heavily inflated one. The European Union’s GDP is over 7 times higher than Russia's," Kallas said.

She stressed that the military spending of EU member states is already nearly three times larger than that of Russia's, and there should be no doubt in who has the advantage to prevail. The sheer size of our collective political, economic and military power could guarantee Ukraine's victory over Russia.

"Given all this, our strategy must be to stay firmly on the course and boost our long-term support to Ukraine. Our number one focus are arms, ammunition and training -- they all must continue at a scale sufficient for Ukraine to win. The bottom line: the stronger Ukraine is, the sooner the breaking point for Russia can be reached," Kallas said.

However, it is not only battlefield success that will decide the outcome of the war against Ukraine. The enforcement of sanctions and properly targeted new measures can deplete Russia's war resources. Allocating Russia's confiscated or frozen assets for the benefit of Ukraine can decisively raise the cost of the war for Russia, she said.

The EU and NATO need a plan for how to deal with Russia as it is now and as it will likely be over the next decade and maybe a generation or more to come. Any such plan needs to avoid wishful thinking, that giving Putin what he wants will somehow make Russia less dangerous.

"We have done it before it does not work. We know what Russia does when it can’t win on the ground. It tries to freeze it, to get a pause so it can rebuild and then come back even stronger. Then everything will continue, the atrocities will continue, the human suffering will continue. We shouldn't be making that mistake again," Kallas said.

She said there should be no step back to business as usual, no lifting of sanctions unless Russia has returned back to Russia and compensated for the damages done.

"Things have happened that cannot be forgiven or forgotten -- war crimes, possibly a genocide, nuclear blackmail, ecocide. So, Russia must be isolated internationally, and we should be extra vigilant to any signs of Russia returning to the international stage -- outright aggressors and war criminals have no place there," the Estonian head of government said. 

The Marion Donhoff Prize is one of Germany's most prestigious awards. Established in 2003, it is named after Marion Donhoff, one of the most influential journalists in post-war Germany and founder of the newspaper Die Zeit.

Previous recipients of the prize include Donald Tusk, Desmond Tutu, Margrethe Vestager and The New York Times.