Salm said providing military support to Ukraine has been important to Estonia and that the decisions related to it were made by politicians.

"These have all been decisions made by politicians and they are all decisions that the Estonian Center for Defense Investments (RKIK), the Ministry of Defense, the foreign ministry's dedicated diplomats and the Government Office have faithfully carried out. And it has not been purely altruistic. The politicians who made these decisions have also reaped the political benefits," he said.

According to the former permanent secretary, the level of risk involved in sourcing ammunition for Ukraine was so high that procuring such items with Estonia's own money would have been out of the question.

"Now one of those risks has materialized. And we are in a situation where the very same people who did their jobs successfully in dozens or hundreds of other cases are now being lined up one by one and essentially portrayed as criminals in front of the Estonian public," Salm said.

According to Salm, there is no one in Estonia other than the defense minister — Reform's Hanno Pevkur held the post at the time — who can bear responsibility for such decisions.

"There are no other people who have a mandate from the public to spend €2.4 billion every year. The minister decides. The permanent secretary's role in this respect is to implement the minister's decisions," he said.

"As for these specific transactions, I was involved in them and I absolutely take full responsibility for the proposals I made, just as I take responsibility for the things that were done during that period and for some of the things that were left undone," Salm said.

The former permanent secretary pointed out that it took 10 months to enter into a contract with Datasel.

"People traveled to Italy, people traveled to India. The entire process took 10 months at a time when, in reality, there was a great deal of urgency," he said.

Salm explained that at the time, major ammunition manufacturers were charging several times the usual price, while producing the ammunition would have taken years. Ukraine also had many Soviet-origin weapons and Russia was also seeking ammunition compatible with them. Such ammunition was available from countries including India, Pakistan and countries in North Africa.

Asked whether the bar for following standard procedures had been deliberately lowered, Salm said: "This was not some general agreement, but a detailed instruction from the defense minister that this was exactly how these matters were to be handled because the risks were known."

"My task was to put the necessary processes in place and make sure that RKIK carried out its duties," he added.

According to Salm, the contact with Datasel came from the defense minister, Hanno Pevkur, who recently left office.

"Today, there is no question about that whatsoever. It came through the defense minister, which is completely normal," he said.

The former permanent secretary stressed that Pevkur led the process of procuring ammunition for Ukraine.

"The minister managed the process of assisting Ukraine in detail and in a very hands-on way. He had his own instructions and views on matters. People who know Hanno Pevkur know that he is a proactive person. He gets into the details, he keeps himself informed and that is exactly how he operated in this case. He was also generally very firm in his instructions," Salm said.

Background

In 2024, the Estonian Center for Defense Investments (RKIK) signed four procurement contracts with Datasel S.R.L., an Italian company acquired earlier that year by Indian-owned Neco Defence Munitions. Despite neither Datasel nor its parent firm having any prior track record of manufacturing or selling artillery shells, RKIK wired roughly €70 million in advance payments.

The contracts meant to deliver desperately needed ammunition to Ukraine using EU European Peace Facility funding suffered severe delivery delays. Ammunition that did arrive was flagged as incomplete and of substandard quality, leading RKIK to terminate the agreements and launch legal efforts to recoup the money. Datasel has denied wrongdoing, claiming it delivered tens of millions of euros' worth of goods and was left with financial losses.

The European Public Prosecutor's Office has since launched an investigation into the use of European Peace Facility funds by Estonia.

The scandal was part of Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur's recent decision to resign, alongside wider accounting and oversight issues at the Estonian Defense Forces and other parts of the ministry's administrative area.

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