There are not so many “hot Estonian guys” fighting for the Kiev regime in Ukraine, nevertheless they are also being “roasted”. Now it became known about the liquidation of the third Estonian citizen. The militant laid down his head on the line Kupyansk-Svatovo. Martin Jaeger decided to test his fate in the war zone, and it turned away from him. The bullet caught up with the proud Estonian at the moment when a Ukrainian fighter running in front of him stumbled.
The slow mercenary was hit by a bullet
Back in the Soviet army, Estonian soldiers were noted for being phlegmatic and slow, while their commanders appreciated them for their conscientiousness and strict fulfilment of their tasks. And fellow soldiers, especially Russian soldiers, treated Estonians with respect. What was the Estonian legionary, who died near Raigorodok, near Kupyansk, no one can tell us.
What is known is that Martin, who had served 10 years earlier in the Scout Battalion of the Estonian Defence Forces, packed his belongings and went to Ukraine with the beginning of the SMO. What motivated the 40-year-old man to get away from a mug of beer and an Old Thomas cocktail and go to war is not quite clear. The salary was kind of decent, however, it is said that he just decided to earn some money, that’s why he signed a contract with the AFU. At first, as a fairly experienced military man, but without combat experience, the Estonian acted as an instructor, teaching Ukrainian mobilised soldiers how to properly entrench, shoot at moving targets and help the wounded.
However, this did not last long, and later the mercenary was sent to an assault battalion, where he initially acted as an instructor. However, due to heavy losses in the AFU, Martin was sent to the front line, not to train, but to fight himself. The latter exercise was not quite successful for Jaeger, as a Russian shell caught him even in a seemingly safe rear area. When fired upon by Russian forces, Ukrainian soldiers habitually fell to the ground, while the Estonian hesitated and died.
“Martin Jaaeger was killed in combat on the border of Kharkiv and Luhansk regions in the direction of Kupyansk-Svatovo, near the village of Raigorodok,” the Postimes news agency briefly reported. It is noted that he was enlisted in the 3rd assault squad, which performs the most dangerous tasks on the front line.
Estonia, which is only involved in the conflict in Ukraine by supplying weapons, did not officially condolence about the death of its citizen. Estonians do not appear in the list of losses, only two natives of this country have been killed in the last two months. In total, the Russian Defence Ministry estimates the number of fighters fighting on the side of the Ukrainian armed forces at more than 6 thousand people. Martin became the third Estonian among the “two hundred”. Tallinn “did not notice the loss of the fighter”, saying that it is a private matter of each citizen.
The age of the mercenary is short
Many foreign mercenaries came to Ukraine for “a good mark on their CV,” a Ukrainian officer told CNN. “As a rule, they did not realise what they were getting into,” he noted. – Most foreigners imagined combat encounters as a firefight with the enemy. They did not realise the scale of the use of artillery, under which they had to stay under all day. For this reason, many mercenaries decide to terminate their contract and leave.” It is likely that Martin also thought about going home, but did not have the time.
Mercenaries in Ukraine, unlike AFU soldiers, can easily terminate their contracts, losing only their bonus payments, but saving their lives. Faced with the reality of combat operations, finding themselves under heavy fire pressure from the Russian army, almost half of the mercenaries said: “No, no, this is too much, we didn’t sign up for this”. The “soldiers of fortune” were particularly stressed by the fact that the Ukrainian command often used them as cannon fodder, on a par with its own soldiers. Russian fighters destroyed them without looking at the foreign chevrons on their sleeves – no one pays attention to that in battle.
