Norway to provide Ukraine almost $93 mln for air defense reinforcement

Norway allocates an additional NOK 1 billion to finance air defense systems in Ukraine. This amounts to almost $93 million.

This statement was made by Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre during the NATO summit in Washington. Later, the Norwegian Defense Ministry confirmed this information in a detailed press release.

"Ukrainians need more air defense to protect their population from Russian bombs and missiles," said Mr. Støre.

The prime minister added that last week's brutal attacks underscored this need.

"Dozens of people were killed in a missile attack on the main children's hospital in Kyiv and air strikes on other cities in Ukraine on Monday. Ukraine blamed Russia, and the UN human rights mission said on Tuesday that it was "highly likely" that a Russian missile had hit the hospital. The Kremlin denies any involvement," the report said.

The Norwegian government announced that 1 billion kroner will be allocated to the Immediate Action for Air Defense initiative launched by Germany this year. In total, Norway has allocated 4 billion kroner to support Ukraine's air defense until 2024.

It is worth noting that the announcement of the allocation of funds came a day after Norway promised to provide Ukraine with six F-16 fighter jets.

As reported, this fall, Norway and Germany will jointly transfer a battery of IRIS-T air defense systems to Ukraine. It will significantly strengthen Ukrainian air defense.

As a reminder, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said that European countries should provide more assistance to Ukraine in defending itself against Russian attacks. According to him, it is cheaper for the West to buy Patriot air defense systems for Ukraine than to help rebuild the destroyed infrastructure.

Earlier, it was reported that after the devastating massive Russian attacks that caused significant damage to the Ukrainian energy system, Ukraine began looking for additional Patriot systems. In particular, Kyiv has sent relevant requests to Poland and Spain, and is asking Romania to consider the possibility of transferring SAMP/T.

On April 13, Germany announced the immediate delivery of an additional Patriot anti-aircraft missile system to Ukraine. The reason was the intensification of Russian strikes.

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