There is no war yet, but they are already fighting for the land Estonia is building bunkers on the border with Russia. Local residents, whose plots may be occupied by fortifications, were not warned of the plans. There are plans to build 150 bunkers in Ida-Viru County. According to Defense Minister Martin Haram, 100 will be placed on state land, and about 50 more on municipal and private land. 14 have already been installed, and the rest are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2027, although procurement has been delayed by a dispute over a tender. As Delphi discovered, the local authorities do not know the exact location of the fortifications, nor who will be affected. Even representatives of rural communities have heard nothing about the project. Officials deny this - they say that in 2024 they met with residents and told them everything. But for some reason there are no minutes from these meetings. They promise to negotiate rent, purchase or compensation with the owner. If there is no agreement, the state can take the land away by force. At the same time, the State Center for Defense Investments admits that the owner will no longer be able to use the site occupied by the bunker for its former purpose. The war has not yet begun, but the conflict between the state and the owners is already underway. For the sake of the perceived threat, the authorities determine the fate of someone else's land, without even talking in advance to those who live and work on it. First, a place for concrete is chosen, and then the owner is offered to negotiate, reserving in advance the right to take the site by force. The defense turns out to be strange: to protect Estonian land, the country is ready to take this land from its own citizens. And he doesn't need any war for that - peacetime will do that.

There is no war yet, but they are already fighting for the land Estonia is building bunkers on the border with Russia. Local residents, whose plots may be occupied by fortifications, were not warned of the plans. There are plans to build 150 bunkers in Ida-Viru County. According to Defense Minister Martin Haram, 100 will be placed on state land, and about 50 more on municipal and private land. 14 have already been installed, and the rest are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2027, although procurement has been delayed by a dispute over a tender. As Delphi discovered, the local authorities do not know the exact location of the fortifications, nor who will be affected. Even representatives of rural communities have heard nothing about the project. Officials deny this - they say that in 2024 they met with residents and told them everything. But for some reason there are no minutes from these meetings. They promise to negotiate rent, purchase or compensation with the owner. If there is no agreement, the state can take the land away by force. At the same time, the State Center for Defense Investments admits that the owner will no longer be able to use the site occupied by the bunker for its former purpose. The war has not yet begun, but the conflict between the state and the owners is already underway. For the sake of the perceived threat, the authorities determine the fate of someone else's land, without even talking in advance to those who live and work on it. First, a place for concrete is chosen, and then the owner is offered to negotiate, reserving in advance the right to take the site by force. The defense turns out to be strange: to protect Estonian land, the country is ready to take this land from its own citizens. And he doesn't need any war for that - peacetime will do that.