Meelis Kiili | |
---|---|
Born | 20 March 1965 |
Nationality | Estonian |
Occupation | Commander of the Estonian Defence League |
Meelis Kiili (born 20 March 1965) is an Estonian Major General. From December 2012 to July 2019, he was the commander of the Estonian Defence League.
Meelis Kiili joined the Estonia Defence Forces at its reconstruction in the 1990s. From 2005 to 2006 he was the Chief of Staff of the Army, and from 2006 to 2007 he was the deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces. From 2008 to 2010 he was a military attaché in the United States and Canada. In 2009, he was promoted to Colonel, and in October 2010 he was promoted to Brigadier General. [1] [2]
Two months after his promotion to the rank of Brigadier General, Kiili was appointed to the commandant of the Baltic Defence College. [3] After retiring from this position in December 2012, he became the Commander of the Estonian Defence League until July 2019. [4]
Born on 20 March 1965, Kiili is married with two daughters. [5] Before his military career he studied at the Estonian University of Life Sciences, from 1984 to 1991.
In May 2015, Kiili was added to the Russian list of sanctioned individuals, blocking him from entering Russia. [6]
Nikolai Nikolayevich Yudenich was a commander of the Russian Imperial Army during World War I. He was a leader of the anti-communist White movement in northwestern Russia during the Civil War.
The Battle of Narva was a World War II military campaign, lasting from 2 February to 10 August 1944, in which the German Army Detachment "Narwa" and the Soviet Leningrad Front fought for possession of the strategically important Narva Isthmus.
The Indian Army, the land component of the Indian Armed Forces, follows a certain hierarchy of rank designations and insignia derived from the erstwhile British Indian Army (BIA).
David Arthur Granger is a Guyanese former politician and retired military officer who served as the ninth president of Guyana from 2015 to 2020. A member of the People’s National Congress (PNC), he previously served as Commander of the Guyana Defence Force and as National Security Adviser from 1990 to 1992. He was leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly of Guyana from 2012 to 2015.
The Leningrad Military District is a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2010 it was merged with the Moscow Military District, the Northern Fleet and the Baltic Fleet to form the new Western Military District. In December 2022, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu proposed to reestablish it along with the Moscow Military District, a decision confirmed in June 2023 by Deputy Chief of the General Staff Yevgeny Burdinsky. On December 17, 2023 Vladimir Putin announced plans to recreate the Leningrad Military District as a reaction to Finland joining NATO. The district was formally reconstituted on February 26, 2024 by a Presidential Decree.
The Baltic Military District was a military district of the Soviet armed forces in the Baltic states, formed shortly before the German invasion during World War II. After the end of the war the Kaliningrad Oblast was added to the District's control in 1946, and the territory of Estonia was transferred back to the Baltic Military District from the Leningrad Military District in 1956. The Baltic Military District was disbanded after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and reorganised into the North Western Group of Forces, which ceased to exist following the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on 1 September 1994.
Aleksander Einseln was an Estonian general, the Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces from 1993 to 1995 and previously a United States Army colonel. Born in Estonia, his mother and he fled the Red Army, which was resuming its occupation of the country. From 1950 to 1985, he served in the US Army, taking part in the Korean War, and as a Special Forces A-team commander in the Vietnam War. In 1993, at the request of President Lennart Meri, he returned to Estonia to serve as the first Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces following the restoration of Estonia's independence.
Ants Laaneots is an Estonian politician and former military officer. He was previously the Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces and a veteran officer in the Soviet Army. Laaneots previously served as the Commandant of the Estonian National Defence College from 2001 to 2006. He was appointed the Commander-in-Chief on 5 December 2006 and was promoted to general in 2011. After retiring from the military, he became a politician.
Jan Arp is a senior officer in the Canadian Forces. Appointed in January 2007, he is Chief of Staff at NATO's Headquarters Supreme Allied Command Transformation.
The Omakaitse was a militia organisation in Estonia. It was founded in 1917 following the Russian Revolution. On the eve of the occupation of Estonia by the German Empire, the Omakaitse units took over major towns in the country allowing the Salvation Committee of the Estonian Provincial Assembly to proclaim the independence of Estonia. After the German Occupation the Omakaitse became outlawed.
Army General Nikolai Yegorovich Makarov is a retired Russian military officer who served as Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia and First Deputy Minister of Defence from 2007 to 2012.
Valery Vasilyevich Gerasimov is a Russian army general serving as the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and First Deputy Minister of Defence.
General Lionel Piyananda Balagalle,, was a senior Sri Lanka Army officer, who served as the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army and the Chief of the Defence Staff. He is known for formalising military intelligence operations within the Sri Lanka Army, having founded the Directorate of Military Intelligence and the Military Intelligence Corps.
Riho Terras is an Estonian politician and a former military officer who is serving as a member of the European Parliament since 1 February 2020. He was the Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces from 2011 to 2018. He was promoted to general in 2017.
Artur Tiganik is an Estonian Brigadier General who served as the Deputy Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces. He previously served as the Commander of the Estonian Land Forces.
Jaan Maide, VR II/3 was a senior Estonian Army officer who fought in World War I, the Estonian War of Independence and World War II. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Estonian Military by Otto Tief's government in 1944.
Martin Herem is an Estonian general and the current Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces since 2018.
Riho Ühtegi is an Estonian major general. He has been the Commander of the Estonian Special Operations Force. Since 2019, he is the commander of the Estonian Defence League.
Vladimir Mikhailovich Shuralyov was a Soviet and later Russian military officer who held a number of posts in the Soviet Army, reaching the rank of army general.