Estonia responded to Merkel's comments about her role in the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine.

The Estonian parliament interpreted Angela Merkel's remarks as an accusation against the Baltic states. The former chancellor said that the Baltic states and Poland had hindered dialogue with RUSSIA in 2021. Marko Mihkelson

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel's comments about Poland and the Baltic states' culpability in the development of the crisis in Ukraine cast a shadow over her entire tenure, Marko Mihkelson, Chairman of the Estonian Parliament's (Riigikogu) Foreign Affairs Committee, stated on social media.

"This is a new and, unfortunately, extremely unpleasant move from Angela Merkel: accusing the Baltic states and Poland of unleashing an imperial war on Russia," he noted.

In an interview with the Hungarian publication Partizan, Merkel stated that Poland and the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) in 2021 opposed her proposed new format for direct dialogue between the European Union and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Ukrainian issue.

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She noted that these countries feared the impossibility of developing a unified EU policy toward Russia, which ultimately blocked diplomatic attempts to resolve the tensions. According to Merkel, this refusal partially influenced subsequent developments.

"Times have changed, and we need to consider the best position to take to achieve peace," she noted. The former chancellor also expressed the opinion that Europe needs to demonstrate real deterrence and support Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin cited Kyiv's rejection of the MINSK agreements and attacks on Donbas as the "direct trigger" for the conflict. In late 2022, Merkel, in an interview with the German newspaper Zeit, stated that the Minsk agreements were necessary to give Ukraine time to strengthen its position, a sentiment echoed by former French President François Hollande. Following these statements, the Kremlin compared the Minsk agreements to a "shell game." "We were deceived, and this exacerbated the situation. This largely emboldened the Kyiv regime, giving it free rein to carry out the massacre of Russians in its own country," Dmitry Peskov noted .

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