The international press amplifies Kaitseliit’s message: “We will kill as many invaders as possible.”

“We’ve just landed in one of NATO’s smallest member states, Estonia, which nonetheless spends nearly the most on defense among NATO countries,” says London Channel 4 news reporter Kiran Moodley, turning to the camera from the passenger seat. “I came to Estonia to find out who are the people ready to take up arms against Russia.”

This introduction is a classic example of why renowned Western media outlets have been visiting Estonia in the past two years. In a long and detailed TV report, Moodley shows how Kaitseliit trains high school students at a defense camp and takes viewers to one of Kaitseliit’s armed exercises in southern Estonia.

“Everyone here is learning to defend their homeland, which could become the frontline in a war against Russia,” Moodley dramatically introduces the segment on Kaitseliit’s exercises.

This year, more than 30 Western media outlets have already covered Kaitseliit’s exercises. The list is impressive. Among NATO allies, journalists from the USA, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, and even Switzerland have shown interest in Kaitseliit’s activities. These are not obscure publications—Sky News, El Pais, Der Stern, NBC News, Dutch TV, De Standaart, Helsingin Sanomat, and Corriere della Sera are influential media outlets in their respective countries.

“With some generalization, we can say that the potential audience who may have learned about Kaitseliit’s activities in the last three months is 1.2 billion people,” says Kaitseliit’s strategic communications specialist, Reserve Major Neeme Brus, who compiled the audience numbers of these outlets.

“Preparing to kill Russian soldiers”

European journalists are repeatedly astonished in Estonia by how widespread national defense is, thanks to Kaitseliit’s activities, and how Estonia has dared to entrust thousands of people with access to combat weapons.

“Since in most European countries weapons are generally not entrusted to citizens, the recurring question foreign journalists have about Estonia is whether the accessibility of weapons increases crime in any way?” says Brus. “In America and Switzerland, it’s common for weapons to be freely accessible to people. But for most Europeans, this is a big surprise.”

Estonians are accustomed to seeing themselves as the target of Russia’s hybrid pressure and often forget that our response to this pressure can also be quite forceful.

“Previously, the narrative when Kaitseliit communicated with foreign journalists was that we were preparing to defend ourselves, but we didn’t name the enemy,” explains Brus, who has served in Kaitseliit and the defense forces for 23 years. “Now that has changed. Just like the NATO Secretary General, we at Kaitseliit now openly state that we are preparing to defend ourselves against a Russian attack.”

One of the Kremlin’s leading propagandists, Olga Skabeeva, claimed on March 3rd in the program “60 Minutes”: “In Estonia, more and more civilians are undergoing military training where they are taught to kill Russians.” Without citing the source, Skabeeva used an interview recorded by Sky News during Kaitseliit’s exercises on Hiiumaa at the end of February.

In this interview, Kaitseliit member Major Tanel Kapper indeed directly warned President Putin: “It will be a bloodbath if you invade. We will definitely kill as many of you as possible.”

Does the phrase “preparing to kill Russian soldiers” not shock foreign journalists? “The journalists who come to Estonia are not novices; they are experienced foreign correspondents. They won’t be easily shocked by this,” Brus responds. “In fact, Major Kapper was a bit concerned after giving the interview, wondering if it might cause issues on the service front, but I reassured him because this is exactly how we need to express our readiness. And I haven’t heard any complaints about that interview… Skabeeva reinforced our message by informing her audience that Estonians have a fighting spirit. Unfortunately, Russians understand only the language of brute force—whether in a street fight or in the war of aggression they initiated against Ukraine.”

After the annexation of Crimea and the start of the war in Easten Ukraine, the world began asking in 2014, “Is Narva next?” Journalists from all over the world flooded into Estonia and our border town.

However, it wasn’t long before foreign journalists discovered something beyond just Narva—Kaitseliit, whose operational principles differ significantly from those commonly found elsewhere in the world.

“Since we managed to get good coverage, media interest has been like a snowball rolling in our favor,” explains Major Brus. “Every new media outlet that comes to Estonia does their preparatory work by Googling previous stories and inevitably comes across Kaitseliit. Each new feature generates renewed international interest in Kaitseliit.”

With a hint of irony, Brus notes that sometimes foreign journalists come to Estonia to do a story on Kaitseliit with the article practically already written in their heads. “All that’s left is to fill in the blanks with quotes from specific Kaitseliit members,” Brus jokes. “Of course, there is particular interest in Narva and the Russian-speaking Kaitseliit members from Narva.”

The attitude of foreign journalists toward Kaitseliit has not always been entirely positive. In 2017, an Italian photojournalist managed to circulate a horrifying story in Dutch and American media, claiming that the Baltic states were training child soldiers to fight against Russia.

“It’s no longer like that,” Brus confirms. “Since the outbreak of full-scale war, the international media has viewed Kaitseliit very positively and has given us valuable free publicity. The message of this publicity about Estonia is that the people in this country have a very strong will to defend themselves.”

Foreign journalists are not only surprised by the thousands of men who volunteer their time for national defense, but also by the systematic national defense education in schools and the integration of Naiskodukaitse, which is responsible for crisis preparedness, into national defense activities alongside other agencies in Estonia.

According to Major Brus, foreign journalists always ask Kaitseliit members if, as a small nation and a small people living next to a great and evil Mordor, they fear the Russian threat. Moodley asked the same question to high school students during his visit to the defense camp.

“We are indeed small compared to other countries, and we need training to be ready when necessary,” replied a blonde girl whose uniform bore the name Tobreluts.

A Kaitseliit member from the Tartu unit answered the question this way: “We have seen how the Russians operate and move in Ukraine. We have gained that knowledge and are adjusting our preparations.”

“And are you ready, no matter what happens?”

“We are ready,” confirmed the fully armed Kaitseliit member with a confident smile.

Reporter Moodley then concluded the segment for Channel 4 viewers with the words: “From the army to ordinary citizens, Estonia will not give up.”

This is exactly the message that Estonia needs to spread to the world and beyond its eastern border.