E3 Talks, NB8 Drones

Within 48 hours, Volodymyr Zelenskyy sat at two European tables offering two different routes out of the war. On 7 June in London, the E3 — France, Germany and the UK, acting outside the EU's formal machinery — backed his proposal for direct talks with Moscow (Élysée Palace, Euromaidanpress). Two days later in Tallinn, the NB8 — the Nordic-Baltic group of eight states from Iceland to Lithuania — signed drone co-production deals with Zelenskyy and promised Ukraine an "irreversible path" to NATO membership (Danish PM's Office).

The split is not cosmetic. The E3 is trying to open a channel to Moscow. The Nordic-Baltic states are building the industrial base to keep Ukraine fighting until Russia has less room to dictate terms.

The Diplomatic Bet

The E3 statement put five conditions around any talks. They include holding the current front line, deploying international peacekeepers in Ukraine, and keeping Russian assets frozen until reparations are paid. Macron has been pushing this line for months: Europe, because of geography and exposure, should shape the peace process rather than leave it to Washington. "This is an architecture of peace and security for Europeans, given the geography," he told reporters (Le Figaro).

Berlin supports the same approach, but with more caution. Its calculation is that Russia is "in a position of weakness" after months of Ukrainian drone attacks on infrastructure (FAZ). That matters for smaller EU states too, Malta included: the peace architecture being discussed is not an abstract continental design. It will decide how much security policy is made by European governments themselves, and how much is left to whichever priority dominates Washington next.

Putin, however, rejected Zelenskyy's open letter on 31 May. The E3 has a framework. It does not yet have the other side of the table.

The Military Answer

In Tallinn, the NB8 did not speak of dialogue with Moscow. Its declaration committed the nine signatories to defence-industrial co-production and called for all six EU accession negotiating clusters to be opened by July. Those clusters are the grouped chapters of EU law that candidate countries must adopt before joining the Union.

Then came the practical deals. Latvia signed a drone technology-transfer agreement with Ukraine. Norway committed about €110 million for maritime drones under its Nansen Programme (Norwegian Government). Finland confirmed a co-production framework covering drones, technology exchange, and the deployment of Ukrainian military specialists on Finnish territory (MTV Uutiset).

Ukraine is not being treated here as a recipient of help. It is being treated as a technology partner. Its drone expertise has been tested under the hardest conditions in Europe, and the Nordic-Baltic states want access to it.

Poland's Empty Chair

Poland, Ukraine's largest neighbour and main logistics hub, was absent from both summits. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that "no arrangements in which Poland does not participate will be respected by us" and proposed turning the E3 into an "E5" by adding Poland and Italy (Wiadomości WP).

Warsaw's exclusion appears to have followed military logic rather than protocol. Poland refused to deploy troops to Ukraine, while peacekeeping is one of the E3's five conditions. A former Polish ambassador put it plainly: "The moment Poland declared it would send no soldiers was the moment its chances of joining fell to zero" (Onet).

That is the price being set for a seat in Europe's peace architecture: not sympathy, not proximity, and not logistical importance, but willingness to place forces on the ground.

Roads to Ankara

Both tracks now lead to the NATO summit in Ankara on 7-8 July. The NB8 declaration asks allies to arrive there with air-defence commitments. The E3 has promised more coordination.

Whether these strategies support each other or work against each other depends on something neither London nor Tallinn could deliver: a signal from Putin that he sees diplomacy as more than European noise filling the space left by Washington's turn towards the Middle East.

Zelenskyy looked comfortable at both tables. In Ankara, European capitals will have to decide which table matters more.