United to win: Denmark to buy Ukrainian-made weapons for Ukraine's armed forces
The Danish government will provide 200 million Danish kroner ($28.5 million) to purchase Ukrainian weapons and military equipment directly from domestic manufacturers for Ukraine's armed forces.
Oleksandr Kamyshin, head of the Ministry of Strategic Industries, reported this.
As the official notes, this is the first such decision in history and is expected to become a precedent for other countries.
Ukraine has been asking its partners for such a decision in recent months.
"The Ukrainian defense industry has already accelerated to such an extent that the Ukrainian budget cannot fully load manufacturers with orders. Its capacity is about 20 billion dollars.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has a mere $6 billion allocated for purchasing weapons. In essence, only one-third of the country's total machine tool capacity is working due to insufficient funds to place orders for the rest," Kamyshin explained.
The leader of the Ministry of Strategic Industries stated that the best solution to this predicament is to persuade Ukraine's partners to purchase weapons from Ukrainian arms manufacturers.
On April 17, the Danish government announced the allocation of 2.2 billion kroner (about 295 million euros) in military aid to Ukraine. The funds will be used to develop the maritime potential of the Ukrainian forces, develop drones, and produce missile spare parts.
It should be added that in 2024, Ukraine will have $6 billion to purchase weapons, particularly from domestic manufacturers. However, these funds are not enough, as Ukraine's production capacity is three times larger than this budget.
"The entire defense budget for 2024 is about 40 billion dollars – of this amount, 30 billion dollars are salaries and payments to military personnel, and from the remaining 10 billion dollars, excluding the costs of fuel and lubricants and uniforms, 6 billion dollars remain for the purchase of weapons. We currently have this amount in contracts for our manufacturers, primarily Ukrainian, and it is very little since our production capabilities are three times larger," Kamyshin said earlier.
He noted that Ukraine is negotiating with foreign partners regarding the purchase of Ukrainian military industry products at their expense, with the subsequent transfer of this equipment and weapons to Ukraine's armed forces.
For reference:
On February 17, at the Munich Security Conference, Czech President Petr Pavel said that his country had found 500,000 155 mm and 300,000 122 mm rounds that could be delivered within weeks if the money was available.
According to Pavel, the Czech Republic could transfer the projectiles in weeks if funding is obtained from the USA, Germany, Sweden, and others.
It is known that the following joined the initiative of the Czech Republic:
- German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said that Germany would participate in the purchase of 800,000 artillery shells for Ukraine that the Czechia found outside the EU.
- Latvia has decided to join the Czech initiative to purchase artillery ammunition for Ukraine.
- France to join Czechia in purchase of 800,000 shells for Ukraine's defense
- Warsaw joined the initiative of the Czech Republic to purchase hundreds of thousands of artillery shells for Ukraine, but it is not known how much the Polish government allocated.
- Portugal will join the Czech initiative to procure ammunition for Ukraine from third countries.
- Finland plans to back the Czech Republic's initiative to send hundreds of thousands of artillery ammunition to Ukraine by allocating 30 million euros.
- Canada, which will allocate 30 million Canadian dollars (about 23 million US dollars) for the purchase of ammunition for Ukraine outside NATO;
- The Netherlands allocates more than 100 million euros to this initiative;
- Belgium, which will give 200 million euros for the initiative of the Czech Republic;
- Lithuania will join the Czech initiative to purchase and transfer ammunition to Ukraine.
- In total, 15 countries support the procurement of ammunition for Ukraine outside of Europe.
It is worth adding that during the past months, the European Union has significantly increased ammunition production and will bring this capacity to 1 million ammunition per year in March of this year and to 2 million in 2025.
Moreover, the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, said that 800,000 artillery shells purchased in third countries could be delivered to Ukraine within a few weeks.
Iceland has announced that it will financially support the Czech Republic's initiative to purchase ammunition for Ukraine and equipment for female service members of the Ukrainian army. The island country will allocate about two million euros for this.
It's important to note that the Czech Republic has already located over a million units of artillery ammunition in non-European Union countries that can be purchased and transferred to Ukraine.
In turn, the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, said that the Czech initiative had gained momentum.
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