Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday ruled out a cease-fire in his country’s war with Russia, saying the Kremlin’s forces would use the pause to rearm and regroup before overwhelming Kyiv’s troops. “A pause on the Ukrainian battlefield will not mean a pause in the war,” Zelensky said during a visit to Estonia. “A pause would play into (Russia’s) hands,” he said. “It might crush us afterward.”

Zelensky noted that Moscow is allegedly buying artillery shells and missiles from North Korea and drones from Iran. Zelensky was in the Estonian capital Tallinn as part of a two-day swing through Baltic countries which have been among Ukraine’s staunchest supporters in the war. The Ukrainian president is pressing allies to provide his country with more support, after already receiving billions of dollars in military aid from its Western allies. Limited ceasefires have occasionally been proposed since Russia’s invasion but have never taken hold.