Today, 25 March, during a general audience with Pope Leo XIV, Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said that while
Estonia commemorates the anniversary of the March deportations, it must also be remembered that similar atrocities are being committed by Russia in Ukraine today.
“Today Estonia marks 77 years since the March deportations, during which the Soviet regime forcibly deported more than 22,000 people from Estonia to Siberia,” Tsahkna told the Pope. “The same pattern is now being repeated in Ukraine, where one of the gravest atrocities of Russia’s ongoing aggression is the deportation of approximately 20,000 Ukrainian children and attempts to erase their Ukrainian identity.”
“The Vatican has played an important role in helping deported children return home, and Estonia stands ready to continue comprehensive cooperation towards this goal,” Tsahkna said.
“The Pope has a unique ability to bring together people from around the world, regardless of their faith, through his message of care, peace and humanity,” Foreign Minister Tsahkna said after the audience.
Yesterday in the Vatican, Tsahkna also met with the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.
“The Holy See has made active efforts to explain to the world that Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine the victim,” the foreign minister said.
“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine constitutes a grave violation of international law and the principles of the UN Charter, and it is in the interests of all countries’ security that Russia’s attempts to change borders by force must not succeed,” Tsahkna said.
Yesterday, the foreign minister also discussed the situation in Ukraine with the Grand Chancellor of the Sovereign Order of Malta, Riccardo Paternò di Montecupo.
“The Sovereign Order of Malta has, from the first days of the full-scale aggression, been actively working to provide comprehensive humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians, which has, among other things, enabled them to endure several harsh wartime winters,” Tsahkna said.
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