Norway pledges additional $240 million of military aid to Ukraine

Norway’s government said Tuesday it was pledging an additional 2.5 billion kroner ($240 million) of military aid to Ukraine, bringing the total to 10 billion for the year.

“The defensive war being waged by Ukraine (…) is being waged now. It is now that is really necessary,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Gahr Store told reporters on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius.

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The funds will be taken from a 75-billion-kroner purse the Scandinavian country has earmarked for civilian and military aid to Ukraine over the period 2023 to 2027.

In practice, Oslo will this year allocate 10 billion kroner to military aid and 7.5 billion to civilian support, rather than the 7.5 billion initially planned for each.

Store did not specify how the funds would be used or what equipment would be purchased.

He also announced that his country would be contributing 300 million kroner each year to NATO’s support fund for Ukraine, over a period of five years.

Norway earlier this year joined a slew of Western nations pledging tanks to Ukraine and delivered eight of the German-made Leopard 2 tanks.

In addition it has donated other armored vehicles, multiple rocket launcher systems and artillery shells.

Having become Europe’s main supplier of natural gas last year, the Scandinavian country has at the same time benefited greatly from the surge in oil and gas prices in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine.

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