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Estonia has no plans to start sending back draft-age Ukrainian men without an official request from Ukrainian authorities, according to Estonian Minister of the Interior Lauri Laanemets.
Interior minister: Estonia won't repatriate Ukrainian men without Kyiv's official request
During Wednesday's question time in the parliament, the matter was raised MP of the opposition Estonian Conservative People's Party (EKRE) Anti Poolamets, who said that Estonia has presumably received over 7,000 men from Ukraine who «actually fled from their obligation in Ukraine.»
The EKRE MP opined that many of these men might be pro-Russian, unwilling to fight on the front lines or even assist in the rear in Ukraine, and some of them may pose a security risk to Estonia.
«Can we at least make appeals to those who could potentially become fighters for their homeland or participants in labor service to return home?» Poolamets asked, referring to these men as «supposed deserters.»
The minister of the interior, Lauri Laanemets, emphasized that Estonia will not decide for Ukraine who needs to go to the front and who does not.
«If Ukraine tells the state of Estonia that they want to mobilize these individuals and asks to send them home, then Estonia will certainly help Ukraine,» Laanemets explained.
«But telling Ukraine where people should be and what they should be doing, without knowing their need and logic -- I don't think that's right. That would rather create new problems for Ukraine,» he said, adding that keeping a register of Ukrainians eligible for mobilization in Estonia is not appropriate.
«But if Ukraine says that they need these people at the front, then Estonia will certainly help immediately,» the minister said.
The minister added that labeling Ukrainian men who have arrived in Estonia as deserters is not accurate, as many of them have been given exemptions from military service by Ukrainian authorities.