President Kaljulaid joined fellow members of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) Board on a working visit to Kyiv and Odesa to prepare for the YES Annual Meeting, which will take place in Kyiv on 11–12 September 2026.
During the visit, high-level meetings were held with Ukrainian officials, including Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine; Yulia Svyrydenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine; Taras Kachka, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine; Oleksii Sobolev, Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine; representatives of the diplomatic community, civil society, as well as military personnel and veterans. The programme also included a visit to the National Preserve Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, which was recently damaged by a Russian attack.
YES Board also visited Odesa and held a meeting with Oleh Kiper, Head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, followed by a visit to the Odesa City Commercial Port, where they learned about the operation of the port infrastructure during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A dedicated part of the programme was a visit to the RECOVERY rehabilitation center for wounded soldiers.
Kersti Kaljulaid has served as a member of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) Board since 2021.
For President Kaljulaid’s personal reflections on the visit, see her Facebook post (originally published in Estonian):