The three Baltic prime ministers and the German chancellor on Monday condemned Russia’s plans to hold tactical nuclear weapons drills.
“Can we say for certain that he’s [Vladimir Purin] not going to use them? No, we cannot because they have done all sorts of crazy things before,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told a joint press conference of the four leaders in Riga.
“But we must understand why they are making these threats: to make us refrain from the decisions that we would otherwise make. So, I think we should not give in to that," she added.
Russia announced earlier on Monday that it would hold tactical nuclear weapons drills involving the navy and troops stationed near Ukraine.
Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa said that Russia was seeking to put pressure on countries whose representatives are planning to take part in the Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland in June.
“We have to stay together; we have to be strong together,” she said.
According to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, “it’s important to say loud and clear once again that nuclear arms must never be used in this war”.
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