Estonian Prime Minister Kaja KallasHELSINKI, Mar 8Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said that Russia should be «isolated from the free world» in connection with the events in Ukraine. On Tuesday, Kallas met with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Tallinn. The parties discussed security issues in Europe and support for Ukraine. Kallas believes that now it is necessary to support Ukraine in the political, humanitarian, economic, and military sense. «Russia must be isolated from the free world. We must adapt to the new reality and make appropriate decisions regarding our own defense,» she said at a joint press conference in Tallinn. Kallas also noted the need to close SWIFT for Russia and Belarus, limit work with cryptocurrency. «It is also necessary to close airspace and seaports for Russia,» she added. According to Kallas, another package of sanctions against Russia is currently being developed. «We are working together with the EU allies, who need to develop a common position. As for the possibility of imposing an embargo on oil and gas supplies from Russia, it should be said that this will affect European countries to varying degrees. This will require the search for alternatives for countries that will suffer more from the embargo. This needs to be discussed,» Kallas stressed. Russia launched a military operation to demilitarize Ukraine early on Thursday morning, February 24. In a televised address to the Russians, President Vladimir Putin said that circumstances «require decisive and immediate action from us, the people's republics of Donbass have asked for help.» According to the Russian leader, all responsibility for the bloodshed will be on the conscience of the ruling regime in Ukraine. He called on the Ukrainian military not to follow the criminal orders of the Ukrainian authorities, lay down their arms and go home. Later, the Russian Defense Ministry stressed that the Russian Armed Forces did not launch any strikes on the cities of Ukraine: military infrastructure was disabled with high-precision weapons. The civilian population, according to the agency, is not in danger.
