Estonia, a small country on NATO's eastern border with Russia, is preparing for a wider war with Russia amid the ongoing Ukraine conflict.
City planners in Tartu, a large university city in eastern Estonia, conducted drills on mass evacuations and sudden attacks on city hall, setting up short-term emergency shelters for 100,000 people by 2028.
Heads of kindergartens are given specialized crisis training and emergency supplies, while high schools across the country are teaching students how to operate drones.
Thousands of soldiers from NATO conduct an annual large-scale military exercise with heavy military equipment and hundreds of drones in eastern Estonia and neighboring Latvia.
Estonia's actions offer a window into how Europe is scrambling to scale up its defenses amid fears over Russia's long-term ambitions in Europe and anxiety about wavering U.S. commitments to its European allies.
The country has rapidly scaled up military spending and routine military exercises with other NATO troops, aiming to spend 5.4% of its GDP on defense by the end of the decade.
Estonia has also opened a first-of-its-kind drone training center to allow Estonia and other allies to test drones, and has made significant shifts in its military spending in response to the advent of modern drone warfare.
