24.05.22 NEWS ... The Russian Federation and other aggressor states should not be allowed to participate in the World Health Organization's (WHO) decision-making process, Minister of Health and Labor Tanel Kiik (Center) said at the 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva.
24.05.22 NEWS ... Upon the proposal of Minister of the Interior Kristian Jaani (Center) and with the approval of the government, Estonia is ending its temporarily reimposed border control along the Estonian-Latvian border on Wednesday.
24.05.22 NEWS ... Previously available in Estonian and Russian, Estonia's Education and Youth Board has launched its online youth information portal Teeviit in English and Ukrainian as well.
24.05.22 NEWS ... The European Commission last week unveiled plans for ending Europe's dependence on Russian gas and oil. Vice President of the Commission Frans Timmermans admitted to ETV foreign affairs talk show "Välisilm" that shaking Russian gas will be extremely difficult.
23.05.22 NEWS ... On Sunday evening, thousands of singers from across Estonia gathered at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn to sing a new choral arrangement of Ukrainian folk song "Oi u luzi chervona kalyna" ("Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow"), which was recorded and aired on ETV on Monday night. Watch the video below.
24.05.22 NEWS ... Research fellow at the International Center for Defense and Security (ICDS) Kalev Stoicescu says that international organizations created after WWII are becoming less influential, with the world polarizing around democratic and undemocratic states.
23.05.22 NEWS ... If 30,000 war refugees from Ukraine were to remain permanently living in Estonia, this would delay the country's demographic decline by more than 20 years, it appears from a new report recently released by the Foresight Center, a think tank at the Riigikogu.
23.05.22 NEWS ... A 5-meter, or more than 16-foot, sand sculpture of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy depicted as the Statue of Liberty was built in the center of the Southern Estonian town of Tõrva over the weekend. A new park is to be built around the sculpture in cooperation with refugee artists from Ukraine.
20.05.22 NEWS ... Following a vote in Tartu City Council on Thursday, a prominent bridge spanning the Emajõgi River in Central Tartu has been renamed Rahu sild, or Peace Bridge. Plans to rename the bridge had already been in the works, but the process was expedited following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February.
19.05.22 NEWS ... Ukrainian-Estonian folk rock band Svjata Vatra recently teamed up with the Estonian Defense Forces Orchestra to release a music video in support of Ukraine for a new arrangement of the famous Ukrainian folk song "The Cossack Rode Beyond the Danube."
19.05.22 UKRAINE LATEST ... Taiwan made a $1 million (USD) donation to the Estonian Refugee Council on Tuesday which will provide help for displaced Ukrainians who have fled to Estonia.
19.05.22 UKRAINE LATEST ... More than 38,500 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Estonia with the intention to stay for the foreseeable future, data from the Police and Border Guard Board ( PPA) shows.
18.05.22 NEWS ... Estonia will need to use its budget resources for the extraordinary costs caused by the war in Ukraine as well as target state support primarily toward those who need help the most, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said at the conclusion of its regular economic policy consultations with Estonia on Wednesday.
18.05.22 NEWS ... Record high world grain prices are affecting Estonia's producers — even though the country produces more than it consumes.
17.05.22 NEWS ... Ukraine's Eurovision-winning song "Stefania" has been translated into Estonian and reimagined by Ott Lepland and rapper Genka.
17.05.22 NEWS ... Finnish MPs on Tuesday voted to apply for NATO membership after a 14-hour debate, Finnish national broadcaster Yle reported.
17.05.22 NEWS ... Minister of Foreign Affairs Eva-Maria Liimets (Center) attended the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Monday, where she also met separately with her Ukrainian counterpart and with the European Commissioner for Home Affairs. High on the agenda were Ukraine-related issues and EU enlargement.
17.05.22 NEWS ... The employment of war refugees from Ukraine with medical educations in the Estonian healthcare system is more difficult than in other fields, as the healthcare field is subject to strict qualification and language requirements. Estonia is currently most in need of nurses, but employing nurses with foreign qualifications would still require several years of additional training.
17.05.22 NEWS ... Russia is no longer capable of forming new high-quality units, and should Ukraine manage to keep up their current offensive, Russia's political rhetoric may start to change beginning next week as well, security expert Rainer Saks said on Vikerraadio's "Vikerhommik" on Tuesday morning.
17.05.22 NEWS ... Unemployment in Estonia has decreased on year, but increased compared with the end of 2021. According to Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund (EUIF) data, the highest number of registered unemployed are currently in the unskilled labor and customer service categories.
16.05.22 NEWS ... Estonia does not support mandatory quotas for refugees, but it did expect greater support from the EU in compensating the costs incurred in connection with war refugees from Ukraine, MP Toomas Kivimägi (Reform), chairperson of the Constitutional Committee of the Riigikogu, said in Paris on Monday.
16.05.22 NEWS ... The COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine have put companies producing military equipment for the Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) under severe pressure, with delivery times and product prices increasing, the Estonian Center for Defense Investment (ECDI) said.
16.05.22 NEWS ... Estonia will not leave the Russian energy grid before the previously agreed deadline of 2025, head of Elering Taavi Veskimägi told ERR on Monday. However, if needed, a connection to the European grid can be established.
16.05.22 UKRAINE LATEST ... Ukraine has started growing its wartime force and made successful offenses on the Kharkiv heading. Meanwhile, Russia is busy reinforcing its positions. Analysts believe neither side is strong enough for a major breakthrough. Russia needs to safeguard its economy to avoid a massive slump in standard of living.
14.05.22 NEWS ... The 15th annual installment of the Lennart Meri Conference takes place this weekend, bringing noted academics, journalists, politicians and others to Tallinn to focus on foreign policy, defense and security at a time when Europe is facing one of its gravest crises since World War Two.
13.05.22 NEWS ... Ukraine's political leaders are slightly disappointed with NATO, Estonian diplomat and the European Union's ambassador to Ukraine Matti Maasikas believes.
12.05.22 NEWS ... This Friday, May 13, the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) is drawing the implementation of the mass immigration emergency response plan to a close, following which the Social Insurance Board (SKA) will take back over the leading role in accepting and providing aid to incoming war refugees in Estonia.
12.05.22 UKRAINE LATEST ... Volunteer groups in the eastern border city of Narva are stepping up to help newly arrived Ukrainian refugees who are in transit to other countries.
12.05.22 NEWS ... Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO would mean significant new capabilities on the Baltic Sea, as both countries' navies have been designed for combat specifically on the Baltic Sea, Capt. Johan-Elias Seljamaa, deputy commander of the Estonian Navy, said on ETV's "Terevisioon" on Thursday morning.
12.05.22 NEWS ... Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay, the country's president and prime minister said on Thursday morning. Estonia fully supports the decision.
11.05.22 UKRAINE LATEST ... As of Tuesday, over 37,000 refugees from Ukraine have fled to Estonia with the intent to stay for the foreseeable future.
11.05.22 NEWS ... Estonia's port and rail transit workers' wages could be temporarily subsidized while the sector reorients itself away from Russian customers and attracts new business partners, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications has said.
11.05.22 NEWS ... Russia has run down its forces in Ukraine and there are likely problems amongst the leadership, Brig. Gen. Vahur Karus, commander of the Defense Forces Academy, told ERR.
11.05.22 NEWS ... ERR correspondents Anton Aleksejev and Kristjan Svirgsden remain in eastern Ukraine, where they are continuing to report directly on events in the region. On Tuesday they attempted to reach the town of Siverskyi, but had to abandon their plans and stop a few kilometers short of town.
11.05.22 NEWS ... Estonia has joined many other countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, in attributing mass cyberattacks on a western satellite network which took place on February 24 to Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate, the GRU.
10.05.22 UKRAINE LATEST ... Estonia's current coronavirus wave remains stable, R is below one and new cases are mostly among people over 80, the Health Board said in its weekly forecast on Monday.
10.05.22 UKRAINE LATEST ... A Ukrainian artist's wartime online correspondence will be played on a loop outside the Russian Embassy in Tallinn on Tuesday.
10.05.22 NEWS ... French President Emmanuel Macron's suggestion of a "political European community," pitched in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Monday, as an alternative to Ukraine joining the EU shouldn't satisfy either Kyiv or Estonia, said Estonian Foreign Policy Institute director Kristi Raik.
10.05.22 NEWS ... This week, the Ministry of Social Affairs is teaming up with the World Health Organization to provide psychological first aid (PFA) training to people in Estonia working directly with war refugees. Regardless of one's job title, if someone is working with refugees, it's important to be trained in PFA, says clinical and public mental health specialist Liina Melanie Sarapik.
09.05.22 UKRAINE LATEST ... More than 36,000 refugees from Ukraine have arrived since the war began which is more than 2.5 percent of Estonia's population.
09.05.22 NEWS ... Founder of Ukrainian aid initiative NGO Slava Ukraini Johanna-Maria Lehtme was awarded the European of the Year on Monday.
09.05.22 NEWS ... Church leaders, including those in Estonia, are joining national leaders in calling on Russia to end its war in Ukraine, but as Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has openly supported and justified the ongoing war, efforts to stress the Christian love of one's neighbor have thus far been in vain.
09.05.22 UKRAINE LATEST ... Azov fighters defending the Azovstal steel factory site, the last base of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol, have said they will fight to the last man and drop of blood. This kind of force is extremely difficult to defeat, Col. Mati Tikerpuu, head of training at the Defense Forces Headquarters, said.
09.05.22 NEWS ... Estonia has received more than 36,000 war refugees from Ukraine to date, and to ease pressure on the country's major cities, refugees have for some time already been sent to housing in smaller towns and rural areas. "AK. Nädal," the Sunday edition of ETV's nightly news broadcast, looked into how these refugees are coping with finding work and more permanent housing.
09.05.22 UKRAINE LATEST ... Estonia will support the reconstruction efforts in Ukraine's Zhytomyr Oblast, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eva-Maria Liimets (Center) said during a visit to Kyiv.
09.05.22 UKRAINE LATEST ... Many civilian objects in Donbas are under constant Russian bombardment. Avdiivka has been a front-line city since 2014 and its residents are bombarded several times a day, ERR correspondent Anton Aleksejev reports.
07.05.22 UKRAINE LATEST ... The high visibility in the international media of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) continues to be a huge benefit to Estonia internationally, in particular since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, several media experts told ERR.
04.05.22 NEWS ... The Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) will be restricting traffic on Filtri tee, in central Tallinn, on Sunday, May 8 and Monday, May 9, amid heightened tensions over this year's 'Victory Day'.
06.05.22 NEWS ... A pediatrician from Ukraine who fled to Estonia to escape the war is now advising pregnant women at Tallinn's hospitals.
06.05.22 NEWS ... Due to the current international situation, Estonian concert and festival organizer Eesti Kontsert will have no choice but to terminate its contract with the Estonian congregation of St. John's Church in St. Petersburg, as it can no longer fulfill its contractual obligations on site at the church building. The state, however, is seeking other opportunities for continuing its activity at the church.