Estonia Attributes the 15 August Milrem Robotics Arson to Russia's Special Services on KAPO Intelligence — Chargé d'Affaires Summoned, Three Latvian Suspects Charged
Tallinn, 29 September 2026
Key points
- Kristen Michal, the prime minister, said on 29 September that "we can state with full confidence that the arson attack on Milrem in Estonia on the night of 15 August was an act of sabotage commissioned by the special services of the Russian Federation", on the basis of intelligence assessed by the Internal Security Service (KAPO). The government statement says preliminary findings in the criminal case also indicate a commissioned attack
- The foreign ministry summoned Russia's chargé d'affaires the same day. Margus Tsahkna, the foreign minister: Estonia will "increase pressure on Russia, tighten sanctions, and seek additional ways to restrict the travel of Russian citizens to Europe"
- Three Latvian citizens, detained in Latvia on 17 and 18 August and handed to Estonia on 17 and 18 September, remain in custody; the charge on record is damaging property. Margo Palloson, KAPO's director-general, called it the first Russian-sponsored attack in Estonia this year the authorities did not prevent, and said defence firms and organisations supporting Ukraine face an elevated threat
- The fire was at Milrem's building on Betooni Street in Lasnamäe. Milrem builds the THeMIS uncrewed ground vehicle, which Ukraine fields. The Kremlin's spokesman called the accusation baseless. No Russian service is named
Tallinn has named the commissioner of the fire by government statement six weeks after it, ahead of any indictment and without naming the service.
The attribution rests on two channels the statement keeps separate: KAPO's intelligence, which is what the prime minister cites for "full confidence", and the criminal proceedings, which the statement says "also indicate" a commissioned attack. The second is the one a court will test. The three suspects were remanded a week before the announcement on a property-damage charge, with sabotage still under examination; Latvia's arrests within three days of the fire and the searches that recovered data devices and suspected fire-setting items are the investigative record so far. Palloson's description of who gets recruited, Russian-speaking residents, criminal networks and foreign nationals, paid and often unaware of the principal, is the pattern the three fit.
The choice of target is the part that carries beyond Estonia. Milrem's THeMIS is a Ukrainian battlefield system, and the Slovak plot in August that Skyeton says targeted its Raybird plant at Haniska went for the same category, a drone or uncrewed-vehicle maker supplying Kyiv from NATO territory; Slovak police named no commissioner there. Tsahkna's response list is diplomatic and consular, sanctions and travel restrictions for Russian citizens, and Wes Streeting, the British defence secretary, added a public line of support the same day. Kallas told defence ministers on 28 September that ministers had taken a first exchange on an EU "emergency security protocol" for grey-zone attacks, to complement Article 42.7.
The unusual sentence in Tuesday's record is not the attribution, which Baltic governments now make as a matter of course, but the security service's own admission that this was the first commissioned attack this year it did not stop. The recruitment across the border, Latvian nationals tasked against an Estonian plant and arrested at home within three days, is the pattern KAPO describes and the reason a single service's perimeter is not the unit of defence. Which Russian service, and whether the charge is upgraded from damaging property to sabotage, are the two facts the case still owes. Signal No. 156 set the attribution beside the Slovak and Latvian cases; No. 151 carried the handover of the suspects.
Related · Sabotage against defence industry
- Skyeton Names the Haniska Raybird Plant as the Slovak Arson Target — No Commissioner Named
- German Military Counter-Intelligence Says the Sabotage Threat "Increased Considerably" in 2025
- Federal Prosecutor Takes Over the Grid-Sabotage Case as Constitutional Sabotage Under Section 88, No Foreign Direction Alleged
