NATO must be ready for Russia to launch an “existential” war against the Baltic states “disguised by a storm of disinformation,” the ambassadors of the three countries have warned.
Writing exclusively for The Sunday Telegraph, the top diplomats in the United Kingdom from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania said Russia could “move quickly” from Ukraine to invade the Baltic, as reported by Yahoonews.
They said that the brutal war against Ukraine by Vladimir Putin is reviving the “darkest memories” of the invasion of the three countries by Stalin. The Estonian Ambassador, Viljar Lubi, Latvian Ambassador Ivita Burmistre, and the Lithuanian Chargé d’Affaires, Lina Zigmantaite, wrote the joint article to mark the 20th anniversary of their countries’ membership in NATO on Friday.
The ambassadors stated that joining the alliance meant their nations have never enjoyed “stronger collective security” than today, but “nor have we faced a more terrifying threat.”
In a reference to other European countries that had downplayed the risk from Russia, they said: “Our warnings about the latent and growing threat from the East were too easily dismissed in some allied capitals.”
“We knew then, as we know now, that only collective defense can guarantee security in Europe. This was missing in the 1930s, and we paid a heavy price; one that Ukrainians are paying now.”
The ambassadors said the “suffering” currently experienced by Ukraine in the form of “deportation, torture, child abductions,” and “cultural erasure” awakens the “darkest memories and fears” of their countries – a clear reference to the Soviet invasion of the Baltic states that began in 1940.