Niharlsan was originally from Sri Lanka but has been living in Estonia for over a decade, having come here as a youngster and attended school here.

He told "Ringvaade" he never once thought about not joining the Estonian Defense Forces (EDF), and is ready to defend Estonia when needed.

He joined up in January.

Niharlsan said that he had found it quite quick to adapt to life in Estonia.

"When we first came, it was a whole new world. There was snow on the ground, which was really interesting, and it was cold," he said, adding that the cold weather in winter is still sometimes a challenge.

After arriving in Estonia, Niharlsan started school at the Lilleküla gümnaasium in Tallinn and is now studying mechatronics at the Estonian University of Life Sciences (Maaülikool), with one year left of his course to go.

While as a student he would have been eligible not to be conscripted, he voluntarily joined the EDF.

"I took academic leave to join the defense forces. I never felt like I didn't want to, or didn't need to do it. I wanted to get it done, to protect my homeland, the Estonian state," he said, adding that anyone who wishes to join the EDF can do so.

War was not an unfamiliar thing to Niharlsan unfortunately, due to the bloody civil war in Sri Lanka, where he was born, which raged 1983-2009 between the Sri Lankan state and the Tamil Tigers, and cost at least 100,000 lives.

Even 15 years after the war ended, tens of thousands of people remain missing.

Niharlsan said his mother lost an eye in an injury sustained due to the fighting, and his father, who had lived in Estonia before, was anxious to get the family out of Sri Lanka and here, for their own safety.

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