Baltic foreign ministers in FT: Russia's occupations are never temporary
Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian foreign ministers write in the Financial Times that the Baltic states know Russian occupation is never temporary amid discussions about a Ukrainian land swap deal that would cement Moscow's war gains.
The statement comes two days before the meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents in Alaska. Talks about a "temporary" land swap have swirled in the media since the meeting was announced last weekend.
Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian officials have all said they recognize Ukraine's territorial integrity and do not believe any land should be ceded to Moscow.
Written by Estonia's Margus Tsahkna, Lithuania's Kęstutis Budrys and Latvia's Baiba Braže, the statement highlights the Baltic states' experiences under 50 years of Russia's "de facto" occupation from the 1940s until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Soviet forces "carrying out mass killings and deportations" and brought "bloodshed and terror to Baltic soil."
While many Western nations – including the U.S. – never formally recognized the Soviet annexation of the Baltics, it did little to help those on the ground.
"For the 6 [million] Baltic citizens who lived through it, international legal nuances offered no protection from daily horror," the ministers wrote in the article published on Wednesday (August 13).
Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the underground resistance, deported to Siberia, and forced to flee into exile. "Some 43,000 children were abducted from the Baltic states; many grew up without knowing their origins," the statement says.
"Even 35 years after independence was restored, the scars remain," the ministers wrote about the second occupation, which lasted from 1944-1991 and caused decades of "human suffering".
Russia's goals to "subjugate Ukraine, split allies and get a say over European security," have not changed, they argue.
Tsahkna, Budrys and Braže wrote: "Sovereignty and territorial integrity are not abstract diplomatic ideals; they are the guardrails that protect people from the fate suffered by generations in the Baltics and now in occupied Ukraine. To entertain the idea of trading land for a fragile truce is to repeat the mistakes of the past — and to invite history's darkest chapters to be repeated."
Read the full article on the Financial Times website here.
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Editor: Helen Wright
