Finland is sending the 22nd military aid package worth up to €190 million and is preparing a long-term plan to support Ukraine, the Finnish government’s press service reports.
“Finland is sending more defense equipment to Ukraine. The President of the Republic made a decision on this issue on February 9, 2024, on the proposal of the government. This is the 22nd consignment of military aid from Finland to Ukraine,” the Finnish government said in a statement on its official website on Friday.
As noted, the total cost of the package will be approximately 190 million euros. This package includes equipment and products made in Finland, while “separate funding of 30 million euros will be allocated to support Ukraine.”
“At the national level and more broadly, we need to find new ways to support Ukraine in the long term. We are currently preparing a long-term plan to support Ukraine,” Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen said, as quoted by the press service. According to him, the Finnish industry has a lot of know-how, “and we are working to ensure that this know-how and potential can be used more effectively in supporting Ukraine. One example of this is our domestic ammunition production.”
It is also reported that Finland has decided to participate in the artillery and demining coalitions operating within the framework of the Contact Group for the Defense of Ukraine, a group that coordinates assistance to Ukraine in the field of armaments.
“We are grateful to Finland for its continued support,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a post on social media platform X.
Voting in the presidential election in Finland ended on Sunday, with a voter turnout of 74.9%. Since none of the candidates received more than half of the votes, a second round of voting will be held on February 11 with the participation of Alexander Stubb and Pekka Haavisto, the Finnish edition of Yle reported on Sunday.
After counting 100% of the votes, former Prime Minister Aleksandra Stubb received 27.2% of the vote, and former Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto 25.8%.
According to the country’s legislation, the president is elected for 6 years for no more than two consecutive terms, so Finnish President Sauli Niinistö will no longer be able to claim a third term in office, and a new, thirteenth head of state will come to power, whose term of office will begin on March 1, 2024.
Earlier, the Experts Club information and analytical project analyzed all the major elections scheduled for 2024, and you can learn more about the 2024 global elections in the video here: https://youtu.be/73DB0GbJy4M?si=rAMBZvZ4ozNmSr4v
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On Thursday, November 23, the Finnish government submitted a proposal to the parliament to amend the draft budget for 2024, among other things, the proposal contains amendments to support Ukraine, the government’s website reports.
In particular, it is proposed to increase by €95.7 million the maximum amount of authorization for the purchase of military equipment for the UKR 2023 Defense Forces for 2024-2028. The proposal will cover the cost of replacing equipment as a result of the 19th package of material assistance provided to Ukraine. The increase in allocations in 2024 will amount to EUR 20.7 million. As a result of the increase, the maximum amount of procurement authorization will be EUR 1 billion 451 million.
In addition, the government proposes to increase the capital of the Finnfund by EUR 25 million, which will be used for investments and loans focused on Ukraine.
On Friday, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö decided to send another military equipment to help Ukraine on the proposal of the government.
According to the Finnish government’s website, this will be the 20th delivery of military equipment to Ukraine. The replacement of the defense equipment contained in this package will cost Finland approximately EUR100 million.
“The total compensation value of the 20 packages of Finnish defense equipment now amounts to EUR 1.5 billion,” said Finnish Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen.
For operational reasons, and to ensure that the aid reaches its destination safely, no further information will be disclosed about the contents of the package, the method of delivery or the schedule.
The government noted that the decision to provide additional assistance took into account both the needs of Ukraine and the resources of the Finnish Defense Forces.
“The prospects for security in Europe and Finland in the current decade are at stake in Ukraine’s defense struggle. Together with our allies, we remain unwavering in our commitment to support Ukrainians,” Mr. Kaikkonen emphasized.
Finland will send the 18th military aid package to Ukraine.
“The cost of the military equipment to be supplied will be about 94 million euros,” the government of the republic said on Friday.
The total cost of all the aid provided by Finland will be about 1.3 billion euros.
The exact content of the aid and the delivery schedule are not disclosed for reasons of ensuring safe delivery.
On Wednesday, during a visit to Ukraine, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo promised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Finland would soon decide on a new military aid package.
“Artillery, ammunition, and air defense equipment, in particular, are now of central importance in Ukraine. Ukraine needs air defense to protect not only its cities and citizens, but also commercial routes, such as grain shipments in the Black Sea,” he told a meeting of his National Conservative Party’s parliamentary faction on Friday.
He noted that Ukraine will host an exhibition for defense equipment manufacturers in the fall.
“I call on all Finnish defense industry operators to take advantage of this opportunity and participate in export work,” Orpo urged.
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.
