Hussar made his remarks at the flag‑raising ceremony on Toompea on Thursday, August 20, reflecting on the events of 1991 and drawing parallels with Ukraine's current fight for freedom. The speech follows.

Today exactly 35 years ago our national flag was not raised on Tall Hermann Tower in a safe and secure world but in Soviet-occupied Estonia. We remember well those unbearably anxious times when we all feared deep down in our hearts that the disintegrating empire would strike back in one last desperate attempt.

Back then, 35 years ago, members of the Defense League and Home Defense Guard, cadets from police schools, and volunteers had gathered here to defend Toompea, Pikk Hermann, and our flag. Exactly the same way thousands of people gathered across Estonia to defend our budding freedom.

That worry and fear in our hearts is also well familiar to us today when Ukraine is fighting the exhausting war of liberation against the same merciless Russian empire. And this fight is a clear reminder for us all that freedom is not to be taken for granted.

Since February 1989, our national flag was raised in this tower exactly 907 times still under the rule of the empire. Until that day in August when the flag was raised in a free Estonia that had just restored its independence. This was possible because we believed in our freedom, we were brave, and we worked together. Our biggest shield was our indelible faith in our independence, mother tongue, culture, and symbols.

One of the greatest luminaries of our era, reverend Toomas Paul, has put it well: 'We cannot separate ourselves from our era, our people, our kit and kin... I am linked to other people in a thousand ways.'

These words link us all to those who stood up for Estonia, but also those who made decisions for Estonia and in the name of independence, as well as to those who are defending freedom in Europe today.

The Estonian spirit is not just an emotion or a passive feeling of 'being Estonian'. It becomes visible when someone consciously takes responsibility for what belongs to them. Today, this means responsibility to safeguard our freedom and country, language and culture; support those who fight for their survival and freedom, and make sure that the flag in this tower would never again be submitted to a foreign rule. And today is the day when our national flag has been flying on this tower, in free Estonia, for 12,783 days — and this counter will never stop again.

Let us stay united and treasure one another; and most of all—let us have faith in Estonia.

I wish you all an excellent Day of the Restoration of Independence! Long live Estonia!

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