Zelenskyy arrives in Estonia to attend Nordic-Baltic summit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Estonia on Tuesday to attend a summit of Nordic and Baltic leaders and to meet with Estonian President Alar Karis, Estonian public broadcaster ERR reported.

Estonia is hosting the summit in its Capital, Tallinn. The country holds the rotating presidency of the NB8, a regional grouping of the five Nordic countries and the three Baltic states. It brought together the bloc’s prime ministers, along with Zelenskyy.

The Ukrainian leader was accompanied by first lady Olena Zelenska, whom Estonia’s Foreign Ministry welcomed in a post on the social platform X.

The visit comes amid friction over Ukrainian drones, which have repeatedly strayed into the region in recent months as Kyiv steps up strikes on Baltic Sea ports Russia uses to export oil in a bid to make Moscow pay an economic cost for its war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia kept up its strikes across Ukraine. In the northeastern Kharkiv region, three people were killed and 25 others, including three children, were wounded in attacks over the past 24 hours, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional administration.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, three people were wounded when several districts came under attack overnight, said regional administration head Oleksandr Hanzha.

Russia launched 166 long-range strike drones and two guided missiles at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said. Air defences shot down 146 of the drones, it said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said that air defences downed 140 Ukrainian drones overnight. A woman was killed when a Ukrainian drone hit an apartment building in the Belgorod region, regional emergency officials said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also travelled to Tallinn, where he met his Estonian counterpart, Margus Tsahkna. The two discussed Ukraine’s security, pressure on Russia, and Kyiv’s bid to join the European Union, Tsahkna said.

“Estonia will continue to stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes,” Tsahkna wrote on X. “As Putin intensifies his attacks and shows no sign of abandoning his imperial ambitions, our responsibility is to increase pressure, not offer concessions.”

In May, Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said Estonia supports Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union and wants the bloc to keep advancing the process.

Separately, Zelenskyy said Monday that he had held positive talks with US representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during a stopover at an airport in Moldova’s capital, describing them as focused on ending the war.

In a social media post, he said the two sides discussed diplomatic prospects ahead of this month’s Group of Seven summit, and that he had briefed the US side on Ukraine’s assessment of Russia’s intentions.