Estonia blames Russia for arson attack on Milrem — SkimNews
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- Estonia's Internal Security Service concluded after a six-week probe that Russian special services commissioned the Aug. 14-15 arson at Milrem's Lasnamäe building in Tallinn, saying it could say so "with full confidence."
- Three Latvian nationals were detained (two on Aug. 17, one on Aug. 18) and transferred to Estonia; authorities had treated the case as suspected sabotage from the start.
- Milrem manufactures the THeMIS unmanned ground vehicle, with over 150 slated for Ukraine under Dutch government funding and an initial 15 already supporting Ukrainian forces by October 2025; the UAE's state-owned EDGE group has held a majority stake since 2023.
- Estonian PM Kristen Michal called the sabotage "absolutely unacceptable and irresponsible," while Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna announced Estonia would summon Russia's Chargé d'affaires, tighten sanctions, and seek new restrictions on Russian citizens traveling to Europe.
- Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov rejected the accusations as "baseless" and bearing "absolutely no relation to reality."
- The Tallinn arson came ten days after drone incidents German authorities linked to Russia and overlapped with a Sept. 3 arson near Munich offices of defense firms Rohde & Schwarz and Helsing, where two Bulgarian nationals were arrested and German press points to GRU involvement.
Why it matters: Estonia is the first NATO state to formally name Russia as the culprit in a specific sabotage of a defense firm supplying Ukraine, summoning Moscow's envoy and signaling tighter sanctions and Russian-travel restrictions. For European defense contractors shipping systems to Kyiv — including Milrem's Dutch-funded THeMIS robots — ISS head Margo Palloson warned an "elevated threat" is now confirmed, not hypothetical, forcing allied governments into coordinated physical-security costs.
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