Estonia's Defense Minister Resigns Over €70m Ukraine Ammo Scandal

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur announced his resignation on September 2, 2026, following the launch of a criminal investigation and a damning audit report into a failed ammunition procurement deal for Ukraine that left approximately €70 million in advance payments stranded with an Italian-registered company with no prior experience in selling artillery shells. The resignation, announced on public broadcaster ERR, comes after the National Audit Office revealed severe problems in defense sector accounting, including an inability to verify inventories worth about €1.2 billion and the discovery that the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments, known by its Estonian acronym RKIK, had taken on budget risks of around €70 million through procurement contracts for other countries. These contracts were for artillery shells intended to support Ukraine, funded by the European Union's European Peace Facility. According to investigators, in 2024 the RKIK signed four contracts with Datasel S.R.L., an Italian firm recently acquired by Indian-owned Neco Defence Munitions.