Ukraine will help Denmark achieve NATO goals
With a new contribution to the Ukraine Aid Fund, Denmark will meet NATO's requirement that each member country allocate 2% of its GDP for defense. Troels Lund Poulsen, the acting Minister of Defense of Denmark, wrote about this on his Facebook page.
"This also means that Denmark will actually meet the NATO target of 2% in 2023 and 2024, as military support for Ukraine is included in Denmark's contribution to NATO," wrote Poulsen.
Denmark plans to increase its military aid expenditure to Ukraine by 17.9 billion kroner ($2.59 billion) this year and next, announced Mette Frederiksen, the Danish Prime Minister, on Monday, according to DR.dk. "The war in Ukraine is now at a very critical moment, the situation on the battlefield is very serious, and therefore Ukraine needs all the support it can get," believes Mette Frederiksen.
The Fund, which finances military aid to Ukraine, was established in March when a majority in the Danish parliament agreed to contribute 7 billion Danish kroner to it. The government will allocate another 7.5 billion Danish kroner to the fund this year, which will total 14.5 billion Danish kroner in the fund. And next year, the government will add another 10.4 billion Danish kroner to the fund. The money comes from the "social fund", according to Mette Frederiksen.
"Right now Ukrainians need our weapons and our support, so it's urgent. But there are no signs that next year will be a year of peace, so we are already allocating more than ten billion in 2024," the Prime Minister explained. The need for new funds arose because 70% of the fund has already been used.
"The fund for Ukraine will soon be empty because we are one of the countries that help Ukraine a lot, and therefore we decided to invest a large sum this year, but also next year Denmark will be one of the countries that support Ukraine the most," says Mette Frederiksen.
"Grateful to the Folketing, the Danish government, and the people of Denmark for the decision to increase funding for the Ukraine Support Fund by $2.6 billion. This substantial contribution will further enhance the combat capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the short and medium term. Our strength is in unity!" wrote President Volodymyr Zelensky on Twitter, commenting on the new aid from Denmark.
Let us remind you that at the Ukrainian Investment Forum in Copenhagen, they announced the launch of a social program of the Danish investment fund for Ukraine for a total amount of 1 billion Danish kroner (about 134 million dollars).