Reinsalu pointed to a planned €1.6 billion ammunition procurement, not one euro of which has yet been spent to that end, he said.

The Isamaa chair has also called on the negotiators from the Reform Party and Eesti 200 government coalition to take into account both this call and the military advice from the commander of the Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) Maj. Gen. Andrus Merilo, and to implement it once the government is formed.

Writing on his social media account, Reinsalu stated: "I would give the negotiators a specific recommendation: Review the military advice given so far by the EDF commander, and implement it."

Reinsalu claimed Pevkur had not done so, at least with Merilo's predecessor, Gen. Martin Herem.

"At the same time, you must ask yourselves what has been the reason for the inability so far? It must be conceded that the current defense minister has not been sufficiently capable of making and enforcing critical decisions on national defense," he went on.

"On Wednesday morning, at a session of the Riigikogu's special committee for budgetary control, I found out that out of the additional €1.6 billion allocated towards ammunition procurement, as of Wednesday, zero euros had been covered by commitments (i.e., [no] actual agreements had been signed)," Reinsalu continued.

Reinsalu noted previous EDF commander Gen. Martin Herem, as well as former defense ministry secretary general Kusti Salm, resigned over ammunition procurement failures.

Even a member of Reform's own ranks called for Pevkur's resignation, Reinsalu noted.

"Reform Party member Kristo Enn Vaga called for Pevkur's resignation last June, citing chaos in the leadership of the Ministry of Defense," he wrote.

Reinsalu added that the EDF commander urged a €1.6 billion ammo purchase, and that the defense minister had been aware of this recommendation and sum.
Now Pevkur changed his rhetoric and started claiming that he supports the additional ammunition purchase, and it was written into the government's budget strategy for 2025-2031. This was justified by saying that it couldn't be done sooner. That is also false," the Isamaa chair added.

Reinsalu added he wrote to Defense Minister Pevkur on June 27, 2023, on the pressing need to procure additional ammunition, but said that the minister's response was to label him a "populist" and to claim that the EDF commander's "recommendations were being implemented and that the money was needed elsewhere."

He added that in August 2023, he made a public appeal on the issue, but Pevkur still remained silent about the need for ammunition, even as then EDF commander Gen. Herem was, Reinsalu wrote, getting increasingly vocal about the matter, via the media.

Reinsalu claimed that last year, Magnus Saar,director of the Defense Investment Centre (RKIK), stated that the necessary ammunition could be acquired by 2028 with political will and funding.

He added that Pevkur's claims had been contradictory: first denying the need for ammunition, then citing a lack of funds, and later claiming that wouldn't yield results, due to the budget deficit.

Reinsalu noted that Pevkur admitted the need for funding in January, agreeing that ammunition could be bought for €1.6 billion by 2027.

Reinsalu criticized Pevkur for failing to grasp the long-term security needs of the country, causing a delay that had both security and financial costs.

He also implied that there was more to the story than he could state publicly, due to official secrets reasons.

"We have lost time, which has a vital and, thanks to the rise in the price of ammunition, also a financial cost on Estonia's security. The decisions made have also not been enforced at the management level, so understandably I cannot disclose information that has been declared secret here," he wrote.

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