The foreign ministers of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia issued a joint statement supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity and warning that Russian occupation is never truly temporary. The statement was released ahead of a meeting between US President Trump and Russian leader Putin amid rumors that they are discussing the possibility of a temporary land exchange to end the war.
The authors of the statement drew on the experience of the Baltic states, which were effectively under Russian control from the 1940s until the USSR’s collapse in 1991. Although many Western countries, including the US, never officially recognized the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states, this did little to help those living under occupation. “For the six million Baltic citizens who survived this period, international legal nuances offered no protection from daily horrors,” the foreign ministers stressed.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of people involved in underground resistance movements were killed, deported to Siberia, or forced into exile. Also, around 43,000 children were abducted from the Baltic states.
The ministers added: “To discuss the idea of exchanging land for a fragile truce is to repeat past mistakes and risk turning the darkest chapters of history into reality again”.