Estonia’s weekend warriors: The SAS civilians urging Brits to get off the sofa and learn how to fight

Published

1 year ago

February 22, 2024

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Citizen soldiers on an Estonian island are dubbed “the SAS” because they train with weapons and war paint on Saturdays and Sundays.

The volunteers – many of them middle-aged dads and the odd mum – said British civilians should also consider getting off their sofas and learning how to fight as the threat from Russia grows.

It echoes a rallying cry last month from the outgoing head of the British army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, who said civilians need to be trained to fight a future war – an idea immediately dismissed by Rishi Sunak’s government.

Ukraine war: latest updates

“You know, we love our freedom,” said Major Tanel Kapper, who commands the Estonian Defence League forces on the island of Hiiuma.

He was speaking as his troops weaved between a huddle of tall, skinny pine trees, then dropped to one knee, before taking aim with their rifles and opening fire.

“We lost it [freedom] once already, so we don’t want to lose it another time. It’s wrong to think that somebody else is coming to fight your war if you are not ready to defend yourself.”

Estonia, which shares a 180-mile border with Russia and only won back its independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, understands the danger from Moscow all too well.

It is why Estonian military chiefs doubled the size of their territorial defence force – the people who would support the much smaller professional army in a crisis – to 20,000 personnel following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost exactly two years ago.

That number comprises about 10,000 Defence League volunteers and the new addition of some 10,000 former conscript soldiers who are part of the military reserve.

Major-General Ilmar Tamm, the head of the Defence League, said the main role of his troops is to deter an attack by President Vladimir Putin’s forces.

Linking NATO security to what happens in Ukraine though, he warned that the chance of such an act of aggression would grow if Russia’s forces prevail in their fight against Kyiv.

“How seriously [do] we take the support to Ukraine?” Major General Tamm said in an interview at his headquarters in the capital, Tallinn.

“If we give up in Ukraine, so are we giving up also our own defence? So… it’s quite critical and should be not separated,” he said.

A ferry trip from the mainland through chunks of icy sea, the island of Hiiuma is a densely forested beauty spot off Estonia’s west coast that is home to about 9,000 residents and becomes a popular holiday destination in the summer.

But it could also become a key target for Russia in any future confrontation with NATO.

Pointing to a map, Major Kapper said Moscow could use the island’s vantage point in the Baltic Sea to cut off access to the Baltic States via the vital waterway.

It is perhaps one reason why British soldiers, based in Estonia as part of a NATO mission to deter Russian threats, visit the island on occasion for training exercises.

Sky News was invited at the weekend to watch around 20 Defence League volunteers practise how to attack an enemy inside a frozen patch of forestland – a challenge that is made much harder when trying to shoot through lots of spindly trees.

The men and one woman loaded their rifles with live ammunition and took it in turn to practise an ambush.

Training over, they drove back to their makeshift barracks, fitted with a sauna – common in all Estonian military quarters – which is used to warm up freezing limbs after hours spent running around in sub-zero temperatures.

Last Sunday afternoon, there was no time to thaw in comfort as the volunteers had to dismantle and clean their rifles before heading back to their civilian lives.

Polishing part of his gun, Taavi, a father of two, with his face painted green, said he decided to join the Defence League along without about 14 friends last year in part as a response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The construction worker said he did not want conflict, but was ready for combat if Russia invades.

“I have to take the weapon and try to protect my family, my home,” he said.

Asked why defending his island was so important to him, Taavi said: It’s my home. It’s easy… it’s a good place.”

With the volunteers one of the only lines of defence on the island, Major Kapper said the tempo of training had been doubled to two weekends a month.

He had a warning for President Putin if he tried to attack: “It will be a bloody mess if you come here. We will definitely kill as many of you as possible.”

As for whether he had a message to other NATO countries like the UK that maybe are not doing as much to bolster their defences, the officer said: “To wake up. It won’t stop in Ukraine. If we don’t stop them, then they will come further and further.”

World

Israel silences more crucial reporting voices from inside Gaza

Published

8 hours ago

August 11, 2025

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Israel silences more crucial reporting voices from inside Gaza

The targeted killing of Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif and four other colleagues by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) late on Sunday silences more crucial reporting voices from inside Gaza.

The IDF wasted no time in releasing a statement claiming it had “eliminated” Al-Sharif, calling him a “terrorist” who “posed” as a journalist for Al Jazeera.

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The Committee to Protect Journalists warned in July that Al-Sharif was the victim of an Israeli smear campaign and that they feared for his safety.

The IDF had previously released documents which they say proved his involvement with Hamas.

No word from them on his colleagues – Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa – who they also killed. We are chasing.

Al-Sharif’s death – and that of his four colleagues – is a chilling message to the journalistic community both on the ground and elsewhere ahead of Israel’s impending push into Gaza City.

There will now be fewer journalists left to cover that story, and – if it is even possible – they will be that bit more fearful.

This is how journalists are silenced. Israel knows this full well.

It has also not allowed international journalists independent access to enter Gaza to report on the war.

Al-Sharif’s death has sent shockwaves across the region, where he was a household name. He was prolific on social media and had a huge following.

I was watching horrifying footage of the immediate aftermath of the strike in the taxi on my way into the bureau, and the driver told me how he and his family had all cried for Anas when the news came in.

His little daughter cried because of Al-Sharif’s little daughter, Sham, who she knew from social media.

“They call everyone Hamas,” my taxi driver said. “Men, women, children”.

Last month, Al-Sharif wrote this post: “I haven’t stopped covering [the crisis] for a moment in 21 months, and today I say it outright… and with indescribable pain.

“I am drowning in hunger, trembling in exhaustion and resisting the fainting that follows me every moment… Gaza is dying. And we die with it.”

This is what journalists in Gaza are facing, every single day.

World

Israel’s PM tries to get on front foot in propaganda war he knows he is losing

Published

14 hours ago

August 11, 2025

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Israel's PM tries to get on front foot in propaganda war he knows he is losing

Israel’s prime minister added more detail to his deeply controversial plans for military escalation in Gaza at a news conference with foreign media yesterday – despite the condemnation of the UN Security Council, which met in an emergency session and urged him to rethink.

Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “fairly short timetable” to establish designated “safe zones” for the one million or so set to be displaced from Gaza City.

He also vowed to seize and dismantle Hamas’s final strongholds there – in the central refugee camps, and in al Mawasi, along Gaza’s southwestern coast.

This, per Netanyahu, is the only way to destroy the terror group, which he claimed “subjugates Gazans, steals their food and shoots them when they try to move to safety”.

Al Mawasi is already home to a significant displaced population, most of whom live in tents cramped up against the Mediterranean Sea, in what is already a designated humanitarian zone.

If members of Hamas live among them, rooting them out will be hugely complicated and will involve significant civilian casualties. If the residents of Gaza City can’t evacuate south to al Mawasi, where will they go?

Netanyahu’s plan is to set up more aid distribution sites through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and to flood Gaza with food.

He claimed his policy was not one of forced starvation – describing particular photos of starving babies as “fake news”, and accusing the media of painting a false picture.

“The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” the prime minister claimed.

I asked Netanyahu how he would go about preventing the kinds of daily killings taking place at aid distribution points in the months since GHF has been operating.

Doctors Without Borders has described these incidents as deliberately orchestrated.

The prime minister said increasing the amount of aid heading into the Strip was the answer.

“And by the way, a lot of the firing was done by Hamas seeking to have a response by our forces,” he added. “And very often they didn’t, they held back. They stayed their own fire even though their own lives were on the line.”

This was Israel’s prime minister trying to get on the front foot in a propaganda war he acknowledged he was losing. He was loath to admit the presence of famine in Gaza.

It took two questions before he acknowledged there was “deprivation”, even if he would not be drawn on whether his 11-week total blockade of the strip earlier this year had played any role.

He recognises that the appalled response of the international community to the human cost of this war, and the accusations of war crimes and genocide which Israel so vehemently rejects, are a terrible look.

This was his attempt to reclaim the narrative.

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Defiant Netanyahu sets out plan for military escalation in Gaza – and describes photographs of starving babies as ‘fake news’

Published

20 hours ago

August 10, 2025