At NATO’s rehearsal for a Russian invasion of Estonia, the bullets are blanks but the resolve is real

The six infantry members of section One Two Bravo had been travelling across southern Estonia for a week, along with a crew of three in their Light Armoured Vehicle. Crawling down a dirt road, they learned of nearby enemy tanks. One Two Bravo dismounted to begin their hunt.

The section was among some 1,000 Canadian soldiers who took part in a NATO military exercise called Steadfast Defender. From January to the end of May, more than 90,000 allied forces from every NATO nation have participated in exercises across Eastern Europe with the goal of demonstrating the alliance’s ability to defend NATO members from threats.

In mid-May, around 400 Canadian troops took part in a Steadfast Defender exercise called Spring Storm, many of them mechanized infantry from 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment based at Gagetown in New Brunswick. Their (simulated) mission: stop an enemy incursion of Estonia from its eastern border with Russia using tanks, helicopters, machine guns firing blanks and other equipment.

A Canadian soldier fires blanks from a C6 machine gun as multiple LAVs practise working in concert to move, shoot and move back before the enemy can return fire.

Locals gave the defending soldiers a friendly welcome and a wide berth as they took position in Abja-Peluoja, a town on a major highway that NATO predicts Russia might use as an invasion route.

Captain Alex Zaremba cheers as his troops repel an armoured assault. In Estonia, he says, he was conscious that generations who remember Soviet rule would understand the stakes of such exercises.

The Canadian fighting contribution for Spring Storm was centred along Highway 6, which runs through southern Estonia, in the counties of Parnu and Viljandi. Canadian, Spanish, Italian, Danish and Estonian forces were tasked with defending against British, French and Estonian troops simulating invaders pushing from the east. The Canadians spent long days in simulated exercises, and on breaks ate and slept in and around their LAVs.

The front line between the two forces shifted in both directions many times over the course of Spring Storm. At one point the Canadians defeated the British troops in a defensive battle, but in another battle were wiped out by a French company.

“It’s real,” said 25-year-old Alex Zaremba, Captain of Two Platoon. “There are people who were born here under the Soviet Union. They know what it’s like and don’t want that again.”

Ukraine’s flag hung side by side with Estonia’s at May 18′s Tallinn Day festival. Estonia has been a vocal ally of Kyiv’s war effort.

With a population of 1.3 million, Estonia is 13 times smaller than Ukraine and shares a border with Russia on its east. The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have all made considerable contributions to NATO and the Ukrainian war effort.

“Canada is privileged to not have an enemy on our borders that wants to destroy what we have,” said Major Jason O’Rourke, commanding officer of Golf Company of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment.

Canada has had a permanent presence in the Baltics since 2017 under Operation Reassurance, which is currently the largest overseas mission for the Canadian Armed Forces and will increase to up to 2,200 troops by the end of 2026.

LAVs trundle through a farmer’s field during the Spring Storm exercises. Over several days, two groups of NATO forces would play the role of defenders and invaders along a constantly changing front line.

In Tihemetsa, Canada’s One Two Platoon advances toward French forces on the invading side. The infantry groups got into a close-quarters firefight in the dense forest: Any soldiers who got ‘hit’ would be told so by adjudicators watching nearby, and then remove their helmets to show they had ‘died.’

One Two Platoon includes Afghanistan veterans MCpl. Murphy and Sergeant Ben Lindley, and newer recruits like 19-year-old Private Nicholas Rice. Major Jason O’Rourke’s hope was that this mission would give soldiers ‘lessons and stories from the other nations that we will tell 30 years from now with pride.’

For generations of Estonians who lived through the Cold War, invasion is not an unthinkable prospect. Estonians have spent most of the past nine centuries under a succession of foreign occupiers, including Danes, Germans, Swedes and, most recently, Russians.

At night, soldiers would sleep outside in sleeping bags near their vehicles, even in subzero cold. Between battles, they would check one another for ticks – a constant hazard in the woods – and enjoy rest and food, including some baked goods and vegetables supplied by local civilians.

Sergeant Luke Johnston aims his 84mm Carl Gustav recoilless rifle at an approaching British vehicle. The ‘84’ is powerful enough to penetrate heavy tanks like the T-80s used by both Russia and Ukraine.

Capt. Zaremba confers with members of the Estonian Defence Forces, who spent the exercise fighting alongside the Canadians. For Estonian conscripts, Spring Storm was the final exam before graduation.

A French soldier dons a Canadian vest. Throughout the exercises, the NATO contingents would bond by exchanging patches and trying out each other’s weapons and equipment.

Both sides in the exercise relied on simulated air support, like this F-18 flying over Canadian forces. In the woods, some defenders took cover in trenches and fortifications left over from the Soviet era.

The colours of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, fly outside Abja-Paluoja at the end of Spring Storm, when LAV One Two Bravo had ‘died’ only five times, but recorded 28 armoured-vehicle ‘kills.’

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