"This is a sign of trust. We sign drone agreements only with our closest friends," said president Zelenskyy as quoted in Postimees. "I am grateful to all Estonian people for their great support and for the positive, helpful, remarkable and encouraging attitude toward our nation throughout all these years."

Zelenskyy voiced hope that once the war ends, many more mutually beneficial bilateral projects will follow.

Although the contents of the agreement are not public, Michal explained after the signing that it will allow Estonian companies to begin producing drones based on Ukrainian know‑how.

Estonia may purchase Ukrainian drones

"In short, the drone agreement means that Ukraine's skills and intellectual knowledge — currently the best in the world and developing very rapidly because of the war — will become accessible to our companies. For Estonian companies, this means production can be brought to Estonia. Ukraine signs such agreements only with its closest partners," Michal said.

For Estonia, the agreement also creates the possibility of purchasing Ukrainian‑made drones in the future. "There is a clause stating that we intend to do so. Concrete decisions will always be made through defense planning, and we did not agree on specific financial figures yet," Michal added.

Latvia signed its drone deal already in June. Although Zelenskyy visited Tallinn at that time, the agreement was not signed then. Michal said the delay was due to technical discussions.

"For Estonia, it is important to describe clearly what we want to do together. But if we were to take on specific obligations, we would need parliament's approval. Right now, this is an intention: to bring production to Estonia and gain access to what matters most — modern drone technology," Michal said.

He added that the agreement could mean Estonia will eventually have access to the newest drones currently still in testing. It may also mean Estonian companies will begin producing drones together with Ukrainian partners in Estonia.

Michal said the most important aspect of the agreement is access to Ukrainian intellectual property. "Meaning the knowledge of how things work, how something can be done, what has been tested. Access to this, and cooperation between our entrepreneurs, is a trusted partnership. There are certain conditions for how it works, and now Estonian companies have the opportunity," he said.

Just a few countries have similar deals

Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said the drone agreement is aimed at enabling Estonia to purchase drones from Ukraine. "We more or less defined the scale of what we could buy from Ukraine annually," Pevkur said.

"We will gain access to Ukraine's various combat systems, and we will receive support from them to strengthen our air defense. Our companies that already cooperate with Ukraine will have the opportunity to obtain export licenses from Ukraine so they can begin manufacturing in Estonia as well," Pevkur said.

Regina Palandi‑Paju, deputy head of the Government Office's security and defense coordination bureau explained in Postimees, that only a handful of countries have reached a similar agreement so far. Before Estonia, those included Gulf states, Latvia and Lithuania — despite widespread interest in the expertise Ukrainians have gained over more than four years of countering Russian and Iranian drones in practice.

After signing the agreement, Michal and Zelenskyy held a bilateral meeting.

"We talked about what Europe, we, and the world can do to put Ukraine in a position where Russia is forced to make concessions. We also discussed that negotiations should take place between Ukraine and Russia, and that Europe will not act as a mediator," Michal said.

"We talked about many other details, including an important event coming up in Estonia — the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference, which will take place here in January 2027. We discussed how to organize it, maintain contact, and what should be done in the process. There were many different topics," he added.

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This story has been updated on July 08, 2026 to add comments by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Hanno Pevkur and Regina Palandi-Paju.

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