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Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur has announced his resignation following a scandal over the procurement of ammunition for Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Pevkur, who has served as defence minister since 2022, told Estonian television that he was taking political responsibility for shortcomings in the financial management of the defence sector.<\/p>\n
“The prime minister will have to find a new defence minister,” Pevkur said late Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The politician, a member of Prime Minister Kristen Michal’s ruling Reform Party, also announced his resignation on social media.<\/p>\n
“I do this in the firm knowledge that we have made the right decisions to strengthen national defence. Estonia is better protected than ever before,” he wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n
Pevkur had come under public pressure after Estonia’s National Audit Office identified numerous serious problems at institutions under the Defence Ministry.<\/p>\n
According to the auditors, the shortcomings increased the risk of misuse of state funds and assets. Similar problems had already been identified a year earlier.<\/p>\n
The controversy was compounded by a scandal involving the procurement of weapons for Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Estonia paid \u20ac70 million ($81 million) in advance to an Indian company in an attempt to purchase artillery shells, despite the firm having no previous experience selling ammunition.<\/p>\n
Neither Estonia nor Ukraine has received the ammunition so far, and the dispute is now before the courts.<\/p>\n
Estonia, a country of 1.2 million people and a member of both the EU and NATO, shares a border with Russia, whose war against Ukraine is viewed as a direct threat to national security in the Baltic state.<\/p>\n
The government in Tallinn is a close partner and supporter of Ukraine, which has been defending itself against Russia’s full-scale invasion for more than four years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n