Estonia says Russian services commissioned Milrem arson attack

• Estonia said its Internal Security Service concluded that Russian special services commissioned the 15 August arson at a building used by Milrem Robotics in Tallinn.¹
• The Foreign Ministry said it summoned Russia’s chargé d’affaires on 29 September to condemn the attack.²
• Three Latvian citizens were detained in August, transferred to Estonia in September and remanded in custody.³
• Milrem supplies unmanned ground vehicles to Ukraine.¹

The fire broke out overnight at a building used by Milrem in Tallinn’s Lasnamäe district. A local resident reported suspicious activity nearby and alerted emergency services, according to Estonian public broadcaster ERR. The fire was brought under control; no one was reported injured or in danger.⁴

Latvia’s State Security Service detained two suspects on 17 August and a third the next day. It said it searched seven locations and seized data storage devices and items that may have been used to start the fire. Latvia’s public statement described suspicions of arson and of assisting a foreign state in action against another state, but did not name that state.⁵

The suspects were transferred to Estonia on 17–18 September. By 22 September, a prosecutor told ERR, they had been questioned and remanded by Harju County Court. They were then suspected of property damage; investigators were still examining whether the fire was sabotage.³

On 29 September, Estonia’s government said its Internal Security Service—known by its Estonian acronym KAPO—had assessed intelligence and concluded that Russian special services commissioned the attack. The government said its criminal investigation into the exact circumstances was continuing. It did not publicly detail the intelligence behind the attribution.¹

That leaves two distinct findings in the public record: Estonia’s intelligence service has attributed the arson to Russia, while the criminal case remains open. The attribution is the government’s conclusion, not a publicly demonstrated account of how the suspects were recruited or directed.

Estonia’s Foreign Ministry said it summoned Russia’s chargé d’affaires to express condemnation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegation as unfounded and said Moscow would not take such statements seriously, the Associated Press reported.²⁶

The attack targeted a company with direct links to Ukraine’s defence. Milrem says its THeMIS unmanned ground vehicles have been supplied to Ukraine.¹ That makes the site’s role relevant context; it does not, by itself, establish who ordered the fire or why.

Footnotes

1. Government of Estonia, “Russia Responsible for Arson Attack on Milrem”. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Foreign Minister Tsahkna: Estonia is a challenging target for Russia’s hybrid attacks”. ↩ ↩²

3. ERR, “3 Latvian suspects in Milrem arson extradited to Estonia, remanded”. ↩ ↩²

4. ERR, report on the suspects’ transfer and remand, including the fire chronology. ↩

5. Latvian State Security Service, “VDD detains three Latvian citizens on suspicion of arson in Estonia”. ↩

6. Associated Press, “Estonia blames Russia for arson attack on defense company that provides vehicles to Ukraine”. ↩