On March 10, Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov met with Minister of Defense of Norway Bjørn Arild Gram during his visit to Kyiv.
The parties discussed further consolidation of efforts to repel russia's armed aggression and the implementation of bilateral projects to strengthen the capabilities of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.
Oleksii Reznikov thanked the people of Norway, the Government, and the Minister of Defense for the support and military assistance provided by the Scandinavian country to Ukrainians and Ukraine, especially to our defenders.
"I welcome a great friend of Ukraine, Mr. Bjørn Arild Gram, who is personally actively involved in supporting Ukraine as Minister of Defense and as a Norwegian citizen. I feel the support of all the people of the Kingdom of Norway, the Government, the Parliament and it is of great importance to us. I would like to note that the high-tech assistance provided by Norway is already successfully working to protect the civilian population of Ukraine. In particular, in repelling the latest massive missile attack on critical infrastructure on March 9. Our air defense soldiers successfully used it," noted Oleksii Reznikov.
The Defense Minister said that since October 2022, russia had launched 15 massive missile attacks on the territory of Ukraine.
"When I say "massive", it means that the enemy uses cruise ballistic missiles and Iranian drones in the amount of 50 to 90 units per attack. As of March 10, 821 russian missiles have already been fired at our country. These are only cruise ballistic missiles. We know for sure that every 10 uses of the NASAMS system, which Norway has contributed to, means 10 downed aggressor missiles, 10 saved buildings and infrastructure, and hundreds of saved lives," said Oleksii Reznikov.
Bjørn Arild Gram accentuated the will and extraordinary ability of Ukrainians to fight, defend, stand, and heroically repel the aggression of the russian federation.
"I express my condolences to the entire Ukrainian people for the losses and victims that Ukraine is suffering from. We are witnessing a changing world and see the difference between the values in it. At a time when our societies stand for democracy, russia, its president and some other people in the world stand for something completely different. That is why we need to stand stronger than ever and hold on. Now that we are strengthening our own defense capabilities, we are helping your country as well, because this is not only a matter of security for Ukraine, but for the whole of Europe," the Norwegian Defense Minister said.
Bjørn Arild Gram announced the decision to allocate USD 7.5 billion to help Ukraine over the next five years. The relevant program has been submitted to the Parliament for approval. He announced that Norway planned to provide Ukraine with launchers, fire control centers, and missiles for the NASAMS anti-aircraft missile system.
"Norway has joined a broad international 'tank coalition' to help Ukraine with a main battle tank. Training of personnel is already underway and the first tanks will be in Ukraine in the near future. We are also helping to strengthen air defense. We have provided short-range Mistral systems and contributed to the work on the NASAMS medium-range system. We will further be together with Ukraine and support you on your way," assured Bjørn Arild Gram.
Oleksii Reznikov noted that the Kingdom of Norway demonstrated leadership in supporting Ukraine and our Armed Forces by its example. That is why, according to the Minister, in the fight against the enemy, we must continue reforms and fight the Soviet-era legacy.
"It is important for us to modernize the procurement system for the Armed Forces. We have set up an agency that will deal with the procurement of weapons and military equipment. Starting next week, our Norwegian partners will take the first delegation of Ukrainian employees of this agency for training to share their experience in modernized approaches to procurement. For us, transparency, clarity of procedures and their control are another level of trust between us and our partners. This confirms the continued support of Ukraine to victory," summarized the Head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
The foreign delegation was presented with a briefing on the implementation of the LOGFAS logistics system, which had been actively launched last fall, as well as the Korovai system, which allows monitoring the supply and movement of Western weapons and military equipment to Ukraine and provides convenient logistics.
Representatives of the Norwegian Ministry of Defense also visited the settlements destroyed by russia in Kyiv region, inspected the destroyed russian tanks and armored vehicles on Mykhailivska Square in the capital of Ukraine, and paid tribute to the memory of fallen Ukrainian soldiers.