European Parliament urges allies to step up aid to Ukraine

The West should be more active in helping Ukraine in its war with Russia. Riho Terras, a member of the European Parliament and former commander of the Estonian Defence Forces, said this, ERR reported.

He pointed out that many Ukrainian defenders were exhausted and were running out of equipment and weapons. He emphasised that the AFU needs support from allied countries and noted that Russian forces have gone on the offensive in many areas and are planning to "ruin Christmas".

Now they are managing to get their forces together for this Christmas offensive. You can see it happening. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin often has a habit of ruining Christmas," he said.

Terras said that because Russia has now very significantly increased military pressure on Ukraine, there are two very important weeks ahead.

'I think the political circles realise that Ukraine needs military support. If the front collapses and the Russians are able to win something back, that would be a bad signal to the rest of the world. That, in fact, the strongest military alliance in the world, along with its like-minded allies around the world, cannot stand up to autocratic states. I don't think it will go that far, but the threat certainly exists and that's why we have to commit ourselves," Terras said.

Earlier, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski spoke about the need to consolidate the West and stressed that the world must not allow the Kremlin to win. According to him, the Russian Federation is behaving "worse than expected" in the war, while the European Union and the USA support Ukraine "more than expected".