In late August 2025, Russian media circulated footage from Tallinn of children allegedly shooting at images of Russian soldiers. We have verified the correctness of this statement.
It was reported that on August 20, in honor of Estonia’s Restoration of Independence Day, a shooting range was organized next to the Tallinn TV Tower, where adults and children could shoot at targets with images of Russian military personnel. The latter were symbolized by cartoonish green monsters in earflaps, military uniforms with the Russian flag and the letter Z. In their hands they held a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a bottle and a bag from the Auchan supermarket (this is one of the few large Western companies continued work in Russia after the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine). As proof, photographs were cited that were allegedly taken on that day in the Estonian capital.
They wrote about the provocative Tallinn shooting range “News", Lenta.ru, "Gazeta.ru" And "Vesti.ru", a number of Estonian Russian speakers communities on social networks, as well as numerous Telegram channels, including “Pozdnyakov 3.0"(390,000 views at the time of writing this analysis", "Solovyov" (224 00), "Truthfulness"(172,000), "Russia now" (146,000) and "Release the Kraken"(129,000). Commenting on the news, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova in an interview with “Izvestia” stated: “Instilling nationalism in children is to cripple them and doom future generations to terrible trials.”
Indeed, on August 20, 2025, holidays were held in Tallinn events, timed simultaneously to the Day of Restoration of Estonia's Independence and the 45th anniversary of the opening of the city television tower. The protection of this structure from Soviet soldiers 34 years ago occupies an important place in the historical memory of the Estonian people. On August 20, 1991, units of the 76th Airborne (Pskov) Division entered Tallinn, but made no attempt to capture the television tower, in which a small number of its defenders locked themselves. Later that day, the Supreme Council of Estonia accepted Resolution “On the Independence of the Republic of Estonia”. The next morning, the paratroopers captured several floors of the TV tower, but after the failure of the coup they abandoned the facility.
This time, the townspeople who came with their families to the area adjacent to the tower were treated to trampolines, a climbing wall, a lottery, a shooting gallery, a festive concert and other entertainment.
At 12:27 Moscow time on the website of a major Estonian publication Postimees posted a photo gallery with pictures taken at the event. There was a lot of footage of children participating in military-patriotic-themed entertainment. There are also three photographs in this gallery that were referenced by the Russian media (Izvestia was one of the first, three hours later). Their author is a Postimees photojournalist Eric Proses.
In the photographs, images of creatures in military uniforms with Russian flags are clearly visible, and different parts of their bodies are marked with different points, as is often the case on targets.
At the same time, questions are raised by details uncharacteristic of a shooting range. The targets are laminated sheets of paper, poorly secured against wind and without a single trace of bullets. In addition, the thin fabric of the tent is clearly unsafe as a quality material. target space.
As it turned out Postimees, a tent with paper targets was set up by the Estonian Defense League (Estonian Defense League) - a voluntary paramilitary force that, along with the country's armed forces, makes up its army. Defense League strategic communications specialist Tanel Rütman said that the organizers needed the images that caused the scandal not as targets, but as caricatures. The event included, among other things, an exhibition of military weapons (which can be seen in footage from viral posts), but they were not fired or loaded. As for the caricatures themselves, Rutman called them natural for today's situation.
Russian-speaking Estonian groups on Facebook distributed another photograph - in it targets in the form of green creatures are captured behind the backs of three people in camouflage. This photo taken from the page of one of the Defense League units that participated in organizing the holiday.
Postimees and publication Delfi also contacted Ivan Lavrentiev, recently appointed elder of the Tallinn district of Pirita, where the event took place. He confirmed that shooting at targets with caricatures of Russian soldiers was not carried out, and called for a distinction between Russian military personnel and citizens of this country living in Estonia.
The Range Solutions logo can be seen in the corner of the paper targets. This Polish company produces targets for sports shooting, which can be purchased at its official website. There are also those paper ones targets. The description says that they are “a humorous caricature of a Russian orc soldier” (the pejorative “orc” is often used in Ukraine are called Russian soldiers).
At the same time, there really was a shooting gallery at the festival near the Tallinn TV Tower - the corresponding photographs can be found on pages Defense League on social networks. However, from these photographs it follows that the participants of the event were shooting not at images of green creatures, but at targets like biathlon ones.
Thus, at the festive event in Tallinn, one could indeed see stylized targets with caricatured images of Russian soldiers. Some visitors even aimed at these targets with real weapons that were unloaded and used for demonstration purposes. However, the tent was not a shooting range, as was reported in many media, and it was actually impossible to shoot at paper targets.
Cover photo: Kaitseliidu Tallinna maleva Kalevi malevkond
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