Lithuania will send M577 armored personnel carriers to Ukraine in February, and a package of long-term military assistance worth 200 million euros has been approved, President Gitanas Nausėda said.
“At a meeting of the State Defense Council, we approved a package of long-term military assistance to Ukraine in the amount of 200 million euros. In January, we will send ammunition, generators, detonation systems to Ukraine again, and in February – M577 armored personnel carriers, we will train the Ukrainian military,” Nausėda said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Vilnius on Wednesday.
Lithuania will transfer to Ukraine in 2024 vehicles purchased in 2023, including trucks, pickups, ambulances, various trailers and forklifts, the republic’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. Unmanned aerial vehicles, antidrones, remote detonation systems, ammunition and magazines, warm clothing sets, and various winter equipment will also be transferred.
According to the ministry, most of the aid is aimed at the needs of the coalition for demining Ukraine, which is being formed by Lithuania, and will include the purchase of various demining equipment, forklifts, trucks, as well as ammunition and dry rations. This assistance will be delivered to Ukraine in 2024-2025.
By the end of this year, it is planned to train approximately 3,000 Ukrainian military personnel.
On Friday, Lithuania handed over a new batch of military aid to Ukraine, the Defense Ministry said.
The Lithuanian Armed Forces sent several million rounds of ammunition and several thousand shells for short-range portable anti-tank grenade launchers to Ukraine. The aid shipment also includes about a thousand folding beds, the statement said.
“We hear the urgent requests of Ukraine and continue to provide assistance in accordance with the stated needs. We actively encourage our allies to do the same,” Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said.
According to the Ministry of Defense, in addition to the regular transfer of military equipment, Lithuania also actively trains Ukrainian servicemen, provides medical treatment and rehabilitation, expert advice, and allocates funds to international funds for Ukraine.
As noted, for the period of 2024-2026, Lithuania will provide Ukraine with a military assistance package of EUR 200 million to counter Russia’s full-scale military aggression.
The U.S. Department of Defense has the ability to provide Ukraine with another $5.4 billion worth of weapons, Voice of America reports, citing the Pentagon.
“The Pentagon has the opportunity to provide Ukraine with another $5.4 billion worth of weapons. Currently, the United States can make deliveries from its warehouses for this amount to meet the urgent needs of the Armed Forces on the battlefield,” the Voice of America said in a statement on its Telegram channel.
Lithuania on Friday handed over 4.5 million units of ammunition to Ukraine, the country’s Defense Ministry said.
According to the ministry, the military aid transferred by Lithuania to Ukraine until the fall of this year includes Mi-8 helicopters, L-70 anti-aircraft guns with ammunition, M113 armored personnel carriers, millions of rounds of ammunition, and ammunition for grenade launchers.
In the near future, Ukraine will also receive launchers of NASAMS mobile air defense missile systems, anti-drone systems, logistics and other auxiliary equipment.
The Ministry of Defense noted that, in addition to the transfer of military equipment, Lithuania is actively training Ukrainian soldiers, providing medical and rehabilitation assistance, and consulting experts.
Lithuania’s assistance to Ukraine has reached EUR 0.5 billion since the end of February 2022 and will continue, the ministry said. A military aid package of EUR200 million is envisaged for 2024-2026. The total amount of Lithuania’s assistance to Ukraine is more than EUR1 billion, or more than 1.2% of the country’s gross domestic product, half of which is military aid.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has allocated 7bn hryvnias for the purchase of weapons and ammunition for the State Border Guard Service.
The Cabinet’s representative in the Verkhovna Rada, Taras Melnychuk, said in Telegram that the relevant decision was made at a government meeting on Friday.
In particular, allocated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (for the Administration of the State Border Service) on an irrevocable basis at the expense of the reserve fund of the state budget 7 billion UAH for the implementation of measures related to strengthening the defense capacity of the state, in particular, for the purchase of weapons and ammunition.
Finland will provide Ukraine with the next 18th defense aid package by the end of the week, it will include heavy weapons and ammunition, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo has said.
“Finland has already provided Ukraine with 1.7 billion euros in aid… We are now preparing the next 18th aid package. It will include heavy weapons, ammunition… We should deliver finally at the end of this week. This is a very good package. It contains very necessary materials,” Orpo said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev.
Answering journalists’ questions whether Finnish high technologies would be available to Ukraine and whether there was anything concrete that Finland could offer, the prime minister said he had discussed the issue with Zelensky and called it “a good idea.”
“We discussed this issue with the president. Last week we saw that a Swedish company signed a cooperation agreement with Ukraine. We discussed that there are high-tech companies in Finland, that they could engage in cooperation to manufacture something together. I think we have something to do. We have experience. So it’s a good idea,” he said.
In turn, Zelensky said that Ukraine is extremely interested in Finnish armored personnel carriers.
“We would like to manufacture them together – in Ukraine. We discussed this with the Prime Minister. He very rightly said that we concluded a memorandum on the production of CV-90. But we need more. And during the war and after the war Ukraine will need to remain strong in order not to give Russia any opportunity to think about the second wave of aggression against us. That’s why we need to produce more. That is why we wanted and want to organize this Defense Industries Forum,” the Ukrainian president said.
