Estonian Interior Minister reverses stance, now is ready to extradite Ukrainians to Armed Forces

Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets said that his country is ready to extradite men with military service to Ukraine to replenish the Defense Forces, ERR quotes him.

According to him, if Ukraine needs it, then Estonia can search for a person and transfer him to Ukraine.

" In the big picture, we know where these persons are, what they are doing. Many, most of them work, they have a place of residence in Estonia," said Läenemets.

He noted that Ukraine has not received an official request, but the country's Interior Ministry has repeatedly appealed to both the Ukrainian ambassador and Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko with a request to notify the internally displaced persons if necessary.

Earlier, the head of the Border and Migration Policy Department of the Estonian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Janek Mägi, said that Ukraine "has no reason to ask Tallinn to extradite Ukrainian men of military age".

On December 21, in an interview with Welt, the head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Umyerov stated that Ukrainians of draft age living in Germany and other countries should join the ranks of the Defense Forces in 2024. He also spoke about sanctions for those who do not comply with this requirement.

In a comment to LIGA.net, the representative of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Pavlyuk explained the words of the Minister of Defense: due to the fact that the citizen abroad did not receive a summons, the threat to Ukraine did not disappear. However, there is no issue on the agenda regarding the mechanism of punishment or legal pressure on those who are not currently in Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated at a press conference on the results of 2023 that the military command proposed to mobilize an additional 450,000-500,000 people. This will cost the state UAH 500 billion.

Also read: Law coming in January to allow conscription of Ukrainian men residing abroad, MP indicates