The two men—Ivan Kikhayal (born 1992) and his namesake Ivan Kikhayal (born 1987)—acted on orders from Russian military intelligence (GRU). The younger was charged with espionage and carrying out sabotage attacks on behalf of the GRU, while the older faced only property damage charges. Investigators said the younger was instructed to commit arson attacks as part of Russia’s “hybrid war” against Estonia and its allies.
The investigation established that since 2023, GRU agents had systematically prepared and organized provocations and acts of sabotage in the Baltic states to destabilize the countries, instill fear in the public, and undermine trust in state institutions.
One of the perpetrators, the younger Kikhayal, allegedly made contact with GRU representatives by June 2024. In December 2024, he was ordered to set fire to a COOP store in Osula, Voru County. He recruited an accomplice who arrived in Estonia on Dec. 17. After the first failed attempt, the younger Kikhayal personally set the store ablaze on Jan. 17, 2025, and recorded his actions on video, which was then submitted to his handlers in exchange for $1,975 in cryptocurrency.
Shortly afterward, he received new instructions from Moscow: set fire to the Slava Ukraina restaurant in Tallinn. Estonia’s Prosecutor General said authorities chose the restaurant as a target because its name and open pro-Ukraine stance made it a symbolic target in view of Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
For that operation, the younger enlisted the older Kikhayal, who was living in Poland. The two drove to Tallinn in a car with Lithuanian plates and scoped out the site from Jan. 27 to 29. In the early hours of Jan. 31, 2025, they set fire to the restaurant. The older Kikhayal broke a window, spilled fuel from a canister and ignited the building while the younger recorded the act.
A video of the arson appeared on YouTube on Feb. 2, authorities said, raising concerns about a propaganda element designed to alarm the Estonian public and agitate the country’s Russian-speaking population.
Both men were arrested in Italy on Feb. 12, 12 days after the incident, and later agreed to cooperate with law enforcement. The July 2 court ruling sentenced the younger Kikhayal to 6.5 years in prison and the older to six months.