The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his address to the parliament of Estonia urged Estonians to find the leverages and tools of pressure on the level of the European Union to make Russia stop deporting Ukrainians and bring the deported people home.
"The European Union has the power to ensure that. The European Union has to use that power," – the President mentioned.
According to him, more than half a million people have been deported from Ukraine.
"It's as if the occupiers, sorry for the example, set themselves the goal to deport the whole of Tallinn. The whole city – here it was, and now no more. It's like the third of all your citizens," – the Ukrainian President noted.
According to him, the deported Ukrainians are being stripped of their IDs, their cellphones are taken from them. Russians are trying to move them to the remote regions of the russian federation. Their attempts to return to Ukraine are thwarted in every way. Children are separated from their parents with the intent to place them for illegal adoption by russian families.
"Until russia brings back the Ukrainians forcibly removed until it brings back thousands of stolen children, it shouldn't receive any money from European states or companies. The European Union has no right to sponsor deportations. The European Union has no right to sponsor war," – Zelenskyy stated.
He called for a more serious attitude toward the policy of sanctions against russian federation for it's the only tool to force russia to peace.
"I call on you, while adopting the new, very important sanctions package against russian federation on the EU level, to defend the need to fully block russian banks. All of them, not just some. I call for oil to be finally added to the sanction package. The embargo on the whole European Union level is necessary!" – the leader of the country pointed out.
He also urged the Estonian specialists to join in investigating the war crimes of russian army on Ukrainian soil.
"We will definitely investigate all the war crimes, identify all the perpetrators and find them. No matter how much time it takes us. But if we do this together with you, with the other European states, we'll be able to achieve that much sooner," – the president says.
He recalled that most of the butchers of the Stalin era were never held accountable for everything they had done, that's why "it's even more important to hold the new generation of the russian butchers accountable".
Volodymyr Zelenskyy also thanked Estonia for the fundamental support of our country in its integration into the EU, military aid, and supporting the Ukrainian refugees.