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.
Finland will provide Ukraine with the 17th package of military assistance, including air defense equipment and ammunition, the Finnish government said in a press release on Thursday.
According to the statement, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto made the decision based on the government’s proposal.
The aid package will cost Finland 105 million euros.
In order to ensure the safe delivery of military cargoes to their destination, more precise details about the content of the aid package, the timing and ways of its transportation are not reported.
In total, Finland has provided Ukraine with military assistance worth about 1.2 billion euros.
Ukraine’s state budget on Thursday received $1.215 billion in grant funds through the World Bank’s Multi-Donor Trust Fund: $1.2 billion from the U.S. and ;15 million from Finland.
“The grant funds are provided as part of the fifth additional funding under the project Supporting Public Expenditures for Sustainable Public Administration in Ukraine (PEACE in Ukraine). The purpose of the project is to partially compensate state budget expenditures, including social and humanitarian, not related to the sphere of security and defense,” the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday.
It specified that the attracted grant financing will be used for remuneration of state bodies’ employees and teaching staff, pension payments, as well as payments under certain programs of state social assistance (IDPs, people with disabilities, low-income families and payments of housing and communal subsidies).
The Finance Ministry added that in cooperation with Deloitte Consulting, which implements the USAID SOERA project, it is monitoring the use of direct budget support from the US government, and with PriceWaterhouseCoopers Ukraine, an auditing company, is reviewing the agreed procedures in order to determine the eligible state expenditures made by Ukraine in 2022.
It is indicated that the size of the PEACE in Ukraine program reached $16.5 billion and EUR1.4 billion (IBRD loans, MIGA loans, grants of the Multi-Donor Trust Fund).
Finland will supply Ukraine with the 11th package of military equipment worth EUR 28.8 million, according to the Telegram channel of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
In addition, the Finnish Defense Forces will continue to participate in training support for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the UK until the end of 2023. “In August, Finland sent about 20 instructors to a UK-led training operation aimed at training the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The UK has asked for support from its partner countries to implement the training,” the report says.
According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, the total cost of all military equipment supplied by Finland to Ukraine is already EUR 189.2 million.
Ukraine and Finland have extended the implementation of the project “Finnish Support to the Ukrainian School Reform” until 2023, the press service of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine reported on Thursday.
The corresponding agreement was signed during a meeting in Kyiv by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmygal and Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin. The project provides financial support from Finland for educational reform in Ukraine in the amount of up to EUR 6 million and up to EUR 2 million from the European Union.
“Since the beginning of Russia’s aggression in 2014, Finland has helped us on all international platforms, provided significant support in promoting reforms in Ukraine, in particular in the field of education,” Shmyhal said.
Finland will allocate EUR 70 million in aid to Ukraine and send additional military equipment, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has said.
“We have made a decision on a further allocation of EUR 700 million to help Ukrainian refugees in Finland. In addition to this, we are currently preparing an additional contribution to cover current needs and assist with reconstruction. The contribution, subjected parliamentary approval, will be approximately EUR 70 million. We have also made the decision today to send additional military equipment to Ukraine,” Marin said at the High-Level International Donor Conference for Ukraine in Warsaw on Thursday.
