Norway is to allocate 268 million euros to support Ukraine’s air defence, including missiles for the Patriot system
This is stated in a press release from the Norwegian government.
It was announced that, together with Denmark, Germany and Canada, Norway will use the allocated funds to order missiles for Patriot air defence systems from the US as part of the PURL programme for the joint procurement of arms for Ukraine.
Norway has highlighted the lengthy lead times for the delivery of such missiles from the US; therefore, the country also plans to procure Patriot missiles from other countries in parallel, so that they can be delivered to Ukraine quickly.
“In the future, ballistic missiles may also pose a serious threat to Norway and the Alliance countries. Thus, the Ukrainian initiative is of interest from the perspective of strengthening Norway’s defence capabilities,” said Norwegian Defence Minister Tore Onshuus Sandvik.
The Norwegian government has highlighted Ukraine’s initiative to develop systems for defence against ballistic missiles. It noted that such weapons could strengthen the defence capabilities of Norway and other NATO countries, and Oslo will therefore allocate funding for the development of countermeasures against ballistic missiles.
Ukraine needs Patriot systems
The latest massive Russian missile attack on Kyiv took place on the night of 6 July. On that occasion, Ukrainian air defence forces shot down most of the drones and cruise missiles, but failed to intercept the ballistic missiles.
Against this backdrop, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the reason for this was insufficient supplies of interceptor missiles from allies.
“As long as the missiles for the ‘Patriots’ remain in our allies’ warehouses, this only encourages Russia to continue ‘targeting’ residential buildings. The US and Europe have sufficient capability to stop this terror,” the head of state added.
Following the attack, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov stated that he would speak to his counterparts in countries holding stocks of missiles for the Patriot air defence systems, with a view to securing their transfer to Kyiv in the near future. He noted that fewer of these missiles are produced worldwide in a month than Russia launches during the same period.
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