Reservists from the Estonian Defense Forces' (EDF) 1st (North) and 2nd (South) infantry brigades mustered in Lääne, Ida-Viru and Tartu counties for the 20th Exercise Spring Storm (Kevadtorm) since 2003.

Over 500 2nd Infantry Brigade, 22nd Infantry Battalion reservists were processed in Tartu County, with some of those attending having traveled back home to Estonia from abroad.

In Lääne and Ida-Viru counties, nearly 400 reservists from the division's 1st Infantry Brigade headquarters, combat service support battalion, reconnaissance company and Viru Infantry Battalion attended, plus the over 100 reservists detailed to headquarters and sub-units who had been on site since last week. These had taken part in a command post exercise and received additional training for Spring Storm participation.

The 2nd Infantry Brigade has completed preparations for the arrival of the remaining reservists ahead of the start of the exercise's active field phase.

Spring Storm 2026 will be the EDF's biggest exercise of the year and will see military ops planning and execution rehearsed, and cooperation between Estonian and NATO allied units strengthened. It started May 4 and runs to June 1.

As well as reservists and NATO and other partner countries' personnel, current conscripts, professional soldiers and members of the volunteer Defense League (Kaitseliit) are taking part.

The first Spring Storm exercise was held in 2003. Spring Storm was not held in 2015, 2018, 2022 and 2025, when Exercise Siil ("Hedgehog") was held instead.

You can read more about Spring Storm here.

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