In May 2025, a video circulated showing people in military uniform allegedly practicing “finishing off the wounded “Ivan”” with bayonets as part of a NATO exercise. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.
The video went viral on May 16. It shows several young men in military uniform, shouting loudly, approaching mannequins and stabbing them with bayonets on rifles. The captions claim that the video shows exercises taking place in Estonia. Siil 2025 (“Hedgehog-2025”), and it is clarified that this is how military personnel from NATO countries practiced “finishing off the wounded Ivan.” Similar publications were posted by Telegram channels “The world today with "Yuri Podolyak""(1.8 million views at the time of writing this analysis), "Russia now • news"(195,000), Colonelcassad (183,000), "Dads read the news (BNC)"(38,000), etc.
Exercise Siil 2025 passed in Estonia from 5 to 23 May 2025. More than 16,000 local military personnel, reservists and volunteers, as well as military personnel from other NATO countries, took part in them. Previously, similar exercises had already been carried out in 2018 And 2022. The training attracted the attention of pro-Kremlin media and bloggers, who saw they contain signs of the Baltic countries preparing for war with Russia.
The exercises were covered in detail on official website Estonian Armed Forces and local Media, including numerous publications photo And video. The official YouTube channel of the Estonian army even has a separate playlist, dedicated to Siil 2025. However, there is no video published by Telegram channels on official resources and in the Estonian media. Moreover, the uniform of the soldiers from the original stories and from the viral video is different - since military personnel from different countries took part in the exercises, many of them have a chevron with the flag of their state on their left hand. However, in the viral video, no distinctive insignia of the military is visible.
A reverse Google screenshot search revealed that this video was first published almost a year ago, on July 18, 2024, on the British Army Royal Armored Corps Facebook page. The video, as follows from the caption, shows recruits training in the use of rifles with bayonets. On the official website of the division explained, that its military personnel also specialize in close combat - this is probably why they practice bayonet attacks. In this case, the original video lasts 5 seconds. longer than the version that was distributed on Telegram channels - the final screensaver with the symbols of the British Army and the Royal Armored Corps was cut out of it.
In May 2025, the cropped video was distributed mainly by Russian-speaking Internet users and Telegram channels. The earliest publication of this video, which was found by “Verified”, appeared On May 14 at 10:41 Moscow time on the social network X, where it was posted by a user with the username @aperigator3. At the same time, he does not in any way connect the video with the Estonian teachings, limiting himself to the comment: “I don’t understand why.” With the clarification that the video was allegedly recently filmed in Estonia, it was first published by the Telegram channel “Dads read the news (BCN)» May 15 at 22:57. In the same post there appears a detail about “finishing off the wounded Ivan.” Subsequently, it was precisely this interpretation of what was happening in the video that was widely Russian, and on English language. The channel “Bati read the news (BCN)” is already met in the analysis “Verified” as a distributor of fakes.
Thus, the viral video has nothing to do with Estonia and the Siil 2025 exercise that took place in this country. The video was filmed in the UK almost a year earlier and shows recruits training in bayonet fighting.
Cover photo: social networks
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