Strengthening Ukraine's Air Defence: Norway to Provide Funding, Latvia to Transfer Short-Range Systems
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has announced that his country will contribute to bolstering Ukraine's air defence system by allocating additional funding for this purpose. This decision was made during a meeting between the Norwegian official and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, as well as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as reported by TV2.
"The morning news tells us about Russian missiles and drones hitting civilian buildings, power stations, and causing numerous casualties. We have very little time to waste, so Norway will be involved in funding the reinforcement of Ukraine's air defence. Several other countries are also contributing because there are air defence assets that can be quickly sent to Ukraine, and they have been actively working on this in recent days and weeks," said the Norwegian Prime Minister.
He also mentioned that to effectively support this initiative, Norway will review the budget of the "Nansen" program, which includes military and civilian support for Ukraine totalling 75 billion Norwegian kroner (almost 6.4 billion euros) over five years.
Meanwhile, Latvia's Defence Minister Andris Sprūds has expressed the readiness of his country's government to transfer to Ukraine a short-range air defence system. According to him, Patriot systems are crucial for Ukraine, but there are countries that do not possess them, yet this should not hinder the strengthening of Ukraine's air and missile defence.
"It's not just about the Patriot systems. They are, of course, very important, as our Ukrainian partners have also emphasized. However, when we talk about air defence, there is a fairly wide range of different systems. We are talking about a multi-layered approach, so it will indeed be a short-range air defence," noted the Latvian Defence Minister regarding Latvia's potential assistance in bolstering Ukraine's air defence capabilities.
It's worth noting that The Gaze reported that the U.S. House of Representatives supported a bill providing military and financial assistance to Ukraine totalling nearly $61 billion. On the evening of April 20, 311 members of the House - 210 Democrats and 101 Republicans - voted in favour of this decision.
The next step for the final adoption of the assistance to Ukraine is the Senate vote on this bill, scheduled for Tuesday. After that, the document will be sent for President Joe Biden's signature, who has already stated that he will sign it immediately after Senate approval.