Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00jets fly over here, you communicate. So we're quite
00:00:03lucky that where we're based, being up here in sort of
00:00:07North Estonia, as we're quite near Amari Air Force Base where the Baltic Air
00:00:10Police um base. So we have these quite regular
00:00:14opportunities where they're quite keen to practice their close air support
00:00:17training uh with us, and so uh, we'll take any opportunity we
00:00:21can get to get any close air support training with them. Um, so at the moment we're working with the
00:00:24Portuguese F-16s. Um, I think they're a
00:00:28three-month rotation out here.
00:00:40In the small town of Tapa, in the Tapa military campus, which is
00:00:43by no means small, life is in full swing.
00:00:47Most of our conscripts receive training here, but
00:00:50not only. In 2014, when
00:00:54Russia first attacked Ukraine, it was decided at the Warsaw
00:00:57summit that NATO's eastern flank needed to be strengthened. So,
00:01:01NATO units were sent to the Baltic states and Poland, and they
00:01:04constantly rotate. The leading nation of the Allied
00:01:08battle group stationed in Estonia is Great Britain, which, however,
00:01:11works closely with the French. They are neighbors both
00:01:14at home and here in the Tapa
00:01:16military campus.
00:01:19As the leading nation, Great Britain's biggest challenge is to bring
00:01:23all parties into cooperation
00:01:25in the best possible way.
00:01:31Estonians and French, especially in the sense of what kit have they got
00:01:34and how how do we best use that with what the UK have. So it's
00:01:38a more, so you get better effect on the
00:01:41battlefield. Ian, the head of communications for the British, is daily
00:01:44involved in just such integration,
00:01:47working with anyone new, it's just adapting to their
00:01:51customs, how do they do it, because although they have a
00:01:55different approach that's not a bad thing, because actually it's quite refreshing hearing
00:01:58you how do they... a problem, how do they prepare
00:02:02uh for an exercise and actually learning off each other, so the more
00:02:05exercises that does
00:02:08together at that level is even better because you can just
00:02:10cross learn from each
00:02:12other. From the
00:02:16children's side, the liaison officer Jeremy ensures that cooperation
00:02:19with the English and Estonians
00:02:21goes smoothly.
00:02:24very similar to the British organization, since in fact,
00:02:27it is standardized by NATO. So
00:02:30we have the same equivalent
00:02:33positions, whether on the French or British side, and therefore
00:02:36this work is facilitated because everyone has their counterpart on the
00:02:40British side to prepare activities
00:02:44and we work in the same spirit with the same procedures.
00:02:47We have acquired the British battle group
00:02:51procedures, so it's very easy to talk about the same
00:02:55thing and jointly prepare activities.
00:02:58Don't think that while the commanders are planning the
00:03:02next exercise from the staff, the soldiers
00:03:04are idle.
00:03:13A soldier's life is endless training, and today we're going to try to
00:03:17complete an obstacle course here with the French guys.
00:03:50Audi.
00:04:10It's not that easy.
00:04:26Wait, wait, wait, everything is thrown over.
00:04:44Oh my
00:04:44God,
00:04:49wow, it's very hard. Thank
00:04:53you.
00:05:00Finish.
00:05:02Okay.
00:05:06That was pretty cool, to be honest. The beginning seemed very
00:05:09easy, but the most important thing is
00:05:13that you don't leave your comrades behind. I was impressed that
00:05:17they were pushed from behind, thrown over, everyone comes
00:05:20along.
00:05:29How difficult has it actually been to
00:05:32integrate allies, different cultures,
00:05:35languages, techniques, I don't know,
00:05:38perhaps also understandings or the understanding
00:05:41of warfare. approximately like traffic
00:05:44signs. When the Allied battle group came to Estonia in
00:05:472017, we were used to conducting exercises and
00:05:51going on missions in an international context. Integration has usually been
00:05:54a problem from a technical point of view. A very simple thing, for example,
00:05:58radio stations do not communicate directly with each other; you have to invent some intermediate device that connects
00:06:01the radio stations. So that's a technical problem. On a
00:06:05human level, we actually have similar
00:06:08preparation. I'll just give an example: we
00:06:12have known the commands for, I don't even know, a month ago in English precisely
00:06:16so that it's easy to give commands to allies, and in that
00:06:19sense, our mutual understanding of things
00:06:22is the same. Of course, at home, we have advantages, and
00:06:26on our terrain, let's be honest, we fight better than
00:06:29any of the allies. There's no need for us to be ashamed of that. But
00:06:33they are clearly integrated, and that integration
00:06:36happens through very complex exercises and
00:06:40training, and again, if something through
00:06:53So we've got an hour of rollback. Drone teams have been harassing uh friendly forces in the region of
00:06:57Taba. We must infiltrate into the area of
00:06:59operation, locate and destroy enemy drone
00:07:03teams and equipment, then ex-field to friendly
00:07:06lines.
00:07:12A soldier's life remains distant and hazy.
00:07:34We see strong men, they are doing something somewhere, they are
00:07:37constantly training. I am currently trying to experience
00:07:41what it's like when you actually...
00:08:13the HK416. Okay, this one has
00:08:16a
00:08:18a uh special apparatus on the front so that we can fire blank
00:08:22ammunition. But normally this part is not on it. It fires
00:08:265.56 ammunition, so it's about 4 kilograms. Okay. And
00:08:30and in some kind of situation I need to run like
00:08:33this, yeah, and very fast, yeah. And then you would also have
00:08:36your backpack on, because it's a short mission, we obviously don't
00:08:40have all of uh the...
00:08:42water and the rations that we would normally
00:08:46have. It's a short exercise. So right now you have
00:08:49them up.
00:08:51Okay. So now you're fully
00:08:55equipped for combat. And then uh, obviously you would have
00:08:59the the battle belt with the pistol.
00:09:02Okay, and how many kilos is everything
00:09:05together? We try not to count, but it's it
00:09:08is quite heavy. Uh, depending on the mission, obviously if your mission is
00:09:24I train hard and I have strength, but this that is
00:09:27around me now, it's heavy. I feel the
00:09:30weight, it presses my
00:09:33breathing, and it really makes my pulse
00:09:36go up. It's really hard, so I can't imagine if you had
00:09:40to run at full speed here and...
00:09:44it certainly creates respect
00:09:45for the men.
00:09:54While you can get used to the weight of the equipment and in the big picture it's always
00:09:58the same, there's one thing you can never be sure of:
00:10:02the Estonian weather. Even today's planned light
00:10:05forest training becomes a greater challenge
00:10:08than expected when
00:10:09it starts to rain.
00:10:16Well, as we can see, it doesn't matter what the weather
00:10:19is like. If the boys have a training or
00:10:23practice time, they have to do it. How often do you
00:10:26practice your things
00:10:28like this?
00:10:31there's no week that we will take off and just not do anything, we we have to
00:10:35keep our our skill level up and it doesn't really matter what the
00:10:39weather is like, we have to we have to train to be ready
00:10:43to fight in whatever conditions. The battle group led by
00:10:45Brandon is not actually here as part of a NATO mission,
00:10:49but in addition to it. Estonia and
00:10:52France have a bilateral agreement, under which also...
00:11:25but uh, I would definitely say that if I was to sum up the
00:11:29Estonian soldiers that I have met, one of the the the
00:11:33best ways that I could describe it would be quiet professionals, so
00:11:37they're not going to be the loudest person in the room, or they're not going to, you're not going
00:11:41to have much unnecessary
00:11:43uh talking for for nothing. But you can see that
00:11:47they're steadfast, dedicated, they include you in the
00:11:50group and they just make you part of the
00:11:52team.
00:12:00The life of a mission soldier means months away
00:12:03from home. In order to alleviate homesickness even a little,
00:12:07the British have brought their own cooks here. So every day on the
00:12:11table are
00:12:12home-cooked meals.
00:12:16We do like fish and chips type for the British type dishes, so our
00:12:20troops don't miss home. Do you really only serve
00:12:23English food here, or do Estonian
00:12:27dishes
00:12:28also make it onto the menu?
00:12:33We also have like vegetarian diet
00:12:37requirement type food for everyone. We feed
00:12:40around
00:12:44like one day. A good meal is the basis of everything, and if at least
00:12:48an attempt is made to create a little bit of a home feeling in the kitchen,
00:12:52the same cannot be said about the soldiers' living quarters. Here
00:12:56you have rooms for
00:12:58soldiers, so on the left and right, rooms for 10
00:13:02with the
00:13:03facilities
00:13:06also in the corridor, very Spartan, but what else
00:13:10can one expect?
00:13:13Indeed,
00:13:19perfectly adapted to the mission. In fact, we
00:13:23are well settled in the...
00:13:25You have infrastructures that are truly excellent, While the British come here for
00:13:28half a year at a time, the French rotation lasts four
00:13:31months.
00:13:32Jeremy
00:13:38to his homeland.
00:13:43Training feasible here in
00:13:46Estonia.
00:13:51that you have really well developed and that are modern and adapted.
00:14:25fiance's picture.
00:14:27This photo was taken at my sister wedding
00:14:31with my fancy. Okay. It's so nice. Thank you.
00:14:35But when is your wedding? Oh, next year.
00:14:38Uh, we don't fix any dates, because
00:14:41I don't have my programation for next summer, but we
00:14:45we up for July
00:14:462027.
00:14:49It must always be remembered that allied units, well,
00:14:52they consist of people, they will go back from here with memories,
00:14:56and these memories are not just memories of the barracks or training. These
00:15:00memories also include white nights and the knowledge of
00:15:04how an Estonian mosquito buzzes, how a Midsummer bonfire
00:15:07smells, and gingerbread at Christmas. They go
00:15:10back home with this memory, and at home, they will pass on that memory
00:15:14to their spouses and children, neighbors, relatives, and
00:15:17acquaintances, and if they just think for a moment, we have rotations
00:15:21here, meaning they change every year, and
00:15:25how many times do these interpersonal
00:15:28connections change, this knowledge that this here is
00:15:32its own Europe, and that
00:15:34through years of rotation.
00:15:37Through rotations, this knowledge has reached tens and
00:15:41tens of thousands of families in England and France.
00:15:44It is a security
00:15:47bond that connects us to the rest of Europe.
00:15:50When you go back to France, you will be
00:15:54waiting for your new mission, and if you are given
00:15:57the opportunity to come back to Estonia, would you come back here?
00:16:01Indeed, there is another possibility for me to return to Estonia
00:16:04in a little over a year... and I would
00:16:07gladly seize it, precisely as I just told you,
00:16:10for all the training opportunities and
00:16:14the excellent work. Who
00:16:17pays for all this, the fact that there are French here, the fact that there are
00:16:20US allies here, the fact that there are British here? Who
00:16:24pays? Well, in the end, our people pay for
00:16:26everything. Does it mean we pay for our allies being here?
00:16:30Well, partly certainly. Partly it is certainly also paid for by the allies themselves, because these
00:16:34active servicemen. "They receive
00:16:38their salaries every month from the British and French governments,
00:16:40their families are somewhere, these are fathers who
00:16:44don't see their children, mothers who don't see their husbands, who are all here,
00:16:48so, uh, if we talk not only about the financial dimension, then we should
00:16:52not underestimate the sacrifice that the allies make for our security, and
00:16:56they don't do it out of altruism and love for Estonia, although
00:16:59we might like to think so. They do it because they
00:17:03understand that their own security begins at the Narva River, their security
00:17:06depends on whether Estonia remains in Europe. All this armament, all this
00:17:10ammunition, all other consumables they
00:17:13use, all this training that these
00:17:16units receive before they come to Estonia, because they don't come to Estonia
00:17:19just from nearby, this is all developed
00:17:22at the expense of our allies' pockets,
00:17:26uh, so it's not like we alone pay for it, but in Estonia
00:17:30we support them, or how partly, we have
00:17:33built them infrastructure, we naturally
00:17:36enable them to use our training areas, we do it
00:17:40with them, a few other things,
00:17:43but all this is little compared to what
00:17:46these allies actually invest
00:17:49in this structure.
00:17:53British soldiers are not only practicing military cooperation
00:17:57here in Tapa, but also a slightly different kind of practice, namely
00:18:00they have their own choir, which is currently preparing to perform in Tallinn.
00:18:04going.
00:18:11The men who are about to take the stage are united, in addition to their military service,
00:18:14by the fact that their roots are all in the Pacific Ocean,
00:18:18on the small island of Fiji. Similarly to Estonians,
00:18:22Fijians also consider themselves a singing nation, so it's no wonder that
00:18:25when a group met in the British army, they immediately formed their own
00:18:29choir.
00:18:37in order to put a group of boys and girls, men and
00:18:41women together uh in this battle group, mean it's been
00:18:44phenomenal, it's been significant and very proud proud moment as
00:18:48well to be Fijian in in a country
00:18:51where we call, which is home away from home.
00:19:08In addition to the choir, Chaplain Rocotorotoro also takes care of the
00:19:12mental health of the entire British battle group, because let's be honest,
00:19:15being a soldier is not exactly an easy job. It turns
00:19:19out that one good way to release tension is indeed
00:19:22singing. We soldiers love sound, they love
00:19:26they love shouting, but to turn that shouting into some
00:19:29positive sounds, it really changes the mood, really changes the
00:19:32mood, especially out on exercise, when
00:19:36everyone's depressed. Whether it's um cold and wet
00:19:39weather, or people just running short of food, or
00:19:43moral, it just lifts the spirit and changes the mood completely. And I
00:19:46just wanted to help soldiers who are feeling
00:19:50lonely at times when they away from their loved ones, and sometimes
00:19:54it impacts their mental health. Do the singing
00:19:58um uh practice just for people just to come in and just release some
00:20:02some negative energy and just turn it into some positive
00:20:05sounds.
00:20:14We are fighting side by
00:20:16side, or we are proud of
00:20:19you. Over land or sea,
00:20:23our sky, oh, when the bullets go
00:20:27rustling
00:20:29by, we are with the wells material
00:20:33typing by your side.
00:20:43As the choirmaster said, one of the goals of singing is to keep
00:20:46spirits high. This is something that needs careful attention
00:20:52for mission soldiers, whether they are our men abroad or allied
00:20:55soldiers here. a welfare
00:20:57service
00:20:59uh padre from kind of pastoral um
00:21:03element to look after them. And on camp, you've got a lot
00:21:06of kind of facilities they can use, so the
00:21:10gym, uh the naffi where they can just chill out, um, you know,
00:21:14watch a bit of football, and they've got that evening time, uh,
00:21:18even chill out and
00:21:52Well, you see them in the city and hear Estonian, Russian, English,
00:21:55French, whatever troops are here at the moment, and
00:21:59they also go to pubs. Do they disturb the
00:22:02city's peace in any way? No, no, not in my opinion. I haven't
00:22:06personally noticed anything but positive interactions. Even if there's
00:22:10something, well, in a pub, things can go a bit
00:22:12sideways, right? But they have their own military police
00:22:16who keep an eye on the boys, so... I, I am very
00:22:20satisfied.
00:22:36Not a single bad word to
00:22:38say about them. Why do you think it is important
00:22:42that they are here?
00:22:46Well, it's great to have our defense
00:22:50forces and all that, but it's still safer
00:22:52with more people, I think that's the most important thing, that
00:22:56we know we are, we are in NATO, we are united, and that's why
00:23:00Estonia is still more protected, but they shouldn't even
00:23:03be here, if I find so, because if
00:23:07it explodes there, well, in Russian
00:23:10they say, I'm just an idiot, honestly
00:23:13to say that you feel your
00:23:15security is threatened, that because the allies are here, then Tapa lives.
00:23:24No, of course, that's why there's that part of the
00:23:27airport or the, well,
00:23:31where the planes are, and so I've been going here
00:23:34for a long time since the war started, but the Tapa campus has been
00:23:38here for almost 100 years, so soldiers have always been here. No, they have
00:23:42been, well, they have to be somewhere, if you look at it that way,
00:23:45but I don't think, well,
00:23:49there is. "They don't
00:23:51bother me." What the allies
00:23:55communicate to a potential aggressor
00:23:58by being here is that by attacking,
00:24:01they will inevitably drag these other
00:24:05large and important allies into the war. And
00:24:07if countries are dragged into war, who says
00:24:11they will come and strike the aggressor
00:24:15precisely where the aggressor expects to be struck? No,
00:24:18no. If "Russia attacks NATO, then
00:24:22it must realize that NATO will attack it everywhere, wherever
00:24:25it deems most expedient, with the means at NATO's disposal,
00:24:29and NATO has an overwhelming amount of those means. There must
00:24:32be no misunderstanding in the mind of any Moscow decision-maker
00:24:36or planner that it is possible to wage some
00:24:39limited conflict with NATO somewhere in the forests of Võrumaa. No, no.
00:24:43A conflict with NATO will cost them immensely,
00:24:47precisely because NATO intends to defend itself with all
00:24:50available means wherever it deems it most
00:24:53expedient.
00:24:59What makes a soldier a good soldier? I
00:25:02think one of the the things that you have to have to to be a
00:25:06soldier is have that spirit of of
00:25:08sacrifice. You're going to sacrifice your
00:25:11comfort to come out and train, and you're going
00:25:14to sacrifice your time not being with your family. The
00:25:18sacrifice is probably the most important characteristic for a good
00:25:22soldier to have that spirit of sacrifice, being ready to to
00:25:26go out and and give the of themselves to
00:25:30to defend their country. You have four children at home, how do you cope
00:25:33on your difficult days with this sacrifice, as you
00:25:37say? Well, I mean, obviously it's it's not
00:25:40just the soldiers that have to make sacrifices,
00:25:44it's it's at the end of the day, you know, it's a whole family, so
00:25:48it's it's obviously difficult for everyone.
00:25:50But it's it's something that, you know, I think it's uh it's very
00:25:53important, and uh it's just the the types of sacrifices that we
00:25:57have to be ready to make if we want to keep our home safe,
00:26:00right?
00:26:10In the next part, we will travel to Võru in South Estonia and
00:26:13get to know our allies from across the big pond, America.
00:26:48In a moment, we'll review today's news in Aktuaalne kaamera, and immediately
00:26:51after that, we'll get a glimpse of Estonians' travel adventures
00:26:54in Laos.
00:27:02"In this episode, we continue to explore the Golden Buddha and its temple,
00:27:06as ancient religions also find new ways
00:27:09to meditate. We will explore the strange things
00:27:13around the ancient temple, after which we will head to the
00:27:16southern tip of the country, the island of Don Det. The sign shows a thumbs
00:27:20up, so it's a good thing, where nature became a big obstacle
00:27:24for the French
00:27:25colonizers there.
00:27:31What a holy..." day is a good day, because then
00:27:35the family gets together, the children are already grown up, everyone has their own
00:27:38life, but at their father's house, a lunch table
00:27:42always awaits them, the extremely popular Finnish
00:27:44comedy series, Sunday Lunch,
00:27:48Monday to Friday on Eesti
00:27:50Televisioon.
00:27:55Will Artificial Intelligence save lives? In the new science
00:27:58episode, we explore how artificial intelligence is applied
00:28:02in the pharmaceutical industry and medicine. So, do you feel normal
00:28:05to yourself? As much as possible, as much as
00:28:09one can feel in this situation. And what moral choices
00:28:13will we face in the future? Gunpowder can be used to make bombs and
00:28:16fireworks. Tonight at 8:30 PM on Eesti
00:28:20Televisioon. Jasper has been taken to
00:28:24prison. The criminology professor with an
00:28:27eccentric nature has fallen into a chain of unpredictable
00:28:31events. The situation
00:28:35continues, but the investigation into new cases continues in the most
00:28:38difficult and stylish British crime series,
00:28:42Professor T.
00:28:44New season, tonight at 10 PM on Eesti
00:28:48Televisioon or watch it now
00:28:51on Jupiter.
00:28:54I'll put it under there first, I didn't want to break that big root.
00:28:58Tree roots grow right
00:29:01before the scientists' eyes. "Well, that's something that
00:29:05a person usually never sees in their
00:29:07life.
00:29:10Pärnu Bay is Estonia's most important fishing
00:29:13ground for coastal fishermen. To see how the fish in Pärnu
00:29:17Bay are doing, we have come with scientists
00:29:20for trawling.
00:29:24Ozoon, Monday
00:29:25at 8:30 PM.
00:29:29In this episode, we will get acquainted with American soldiers,
00:29:32who are testing their tanks in the forests of Võrumaa. How do
00:29:36the distant comrades-in-arms cope
00:29:38with homesickness? We will also talk to local
00:29:41entrepreneurs. They have a very big appetite, so
00:29:45they always order very large quantities, and we will find out what
00:29:49the residents of Võru think about it. The question is whether they can be
00:29:52trusted. Watch the show Comrades-in-arms on Monday evening at
00:29:568:00 PM on Eesti Televisioon.
00:29:59Ukrainian secret operation Vivaldi. Donald Trump's
00:30:03desire to curb diesel prices worldwide and Putin's farcical
00:30:07elections in Russia. All these topics will be covered tonight in Ukraine
00:30:10studio. We start as usual at 8:00 PM on ETV.
00:30:37Happy Sunday everyone, our news at half
00:30:39past six. Estonia's heart health is among
00:30:43the worst in the European Union.
00:30:47On the last day of the Russian elections, Moscow was hit by a large-scale Ukrainian
00:30:50droonirünnak.
00:30:54The Transport Administration confirms that traffic culture has
00:30:57deteriorated.