Following the presentation of his credentials to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, Ambassador Tammsaar said: "By offering Ukraine every support, ramping up sanctions and isolating Russia internationally, we must raise the cost of the aggression for Russia to such an extent that it will be forced to end this war."

The situation must remain front and center in the international community's attention, he added.

"We cannot allow war fatigue to take hold, when our common values and the question of Ukraine's statehood are at stake," Ambassador Tammsaar added.

Tammsaar stressed that Russian troops have, during the course of the conflict, committed widespread and systematic atrocities including rape, torture and deportation, incidents he said must be brought to trial under international law and as war crimes.

The new UN ambassador also noted the negative fallout from the conflict, including inflation in many areas, particularly food and energy, the threat of nuclear disaster, and a proliferation of misinformation from the Kremlin, and he also thanked Secretary-General Guterres for the latter's on the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

While his activities at the UN at present will focus on Ukraine, Estonia's work in New York will continue to include advocating for human rights, the rights of women and children, gender equality, media freedoms, digitalization and cybersecurity.

Rein Tammsaar was born in 1968 in Tallinn and is a former permanent representative to the EU. Prior to his appointment as Estonia's permanent representative to the UN, he had been working as the Undersecretary for Political Affairs at the Estonian foreign ministry.

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