Estonia "seriously" mulling sending troops to Ukraine

The government of Estonia is "seriously" discussing the possibility of sending troops to the west of Ukraine to free up Ukrainian units for operations at the front lines.

This was stated by Madis Roll, national security adviser to the President of Estonia, Ukrinform reports citing Breaking Defense.

"The government of Estonia is ‘seriously’ discussing the possibility of sending troops into western Ukraine to take over non-direct combat, ‘rear’ roles from Ukrainian forces in order to free them up to fight on the front," the adviser said.

The government is currently analyzing the potential move, and while Estonia prefers any such step to be part of a full-fledged NATO mission — "to show broader combined strength and determination" — it did not rule out the possibility that Estonia would have to act as part of a smaller coalition.

“Discussions are ongoing,” he said on May 10 at the presidential palace here. “We should be looking at all the possibilities.”

"We shouldn’t have our minds restricted as to what we can do," he added.

Roll's comments came after the head of the Estonian Defense Forces, General Martin Herem, said earlier last week that several months ago there had been discussions in the military about sending troops to western Ukraine to perform tasks such as medical services, logistics or air defense for some cities in the west of Ukraine.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron does not rule out sending troops to Ukraine if Russia breaks through the Ukrainian defenses and if Kyiv puts forward such a request.