COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Western countries on Thursday pledged 1.55 billion euros in cash, equipment and training to boost Ukraine’s military capabilities in its war against Russia, the Danish minister said. of Defense, Morten Bodskov.
The funds, which were pledged by a group of 26 countries at a conference in Copenhagen, will be used to supply arms, missiles and ammunition, increase arms production for Ukraine , training Ukrainian soldiers and clearing trapped areas.
“We will continue to help Ukraine meet its military needs,” Morten Bodskov told reporters at the end of the conference which brought together European defense ministers to discuss support for Kyiv.
The defense ministers of Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have expressed their willingness to increase the production of artillery systems, ammunition and other military equipment for Ukraine, Morten said. Bodskov.
Britain, which has already supplied state-of-the-art weapons devices to Ukraine and provided military training to thousands of its soldiers, pledged on Thursday to provide an additional 300 million euros, including multiple rocket launchers and precision-guided M31A1 missiles that can strike targets 80 km away.
“President Putin made a bet that in August (…) we would all be tired of the conflict (…). Well we are proving the opposite today”, declared the British Minister of Defense , Ben Wallace.
The pledges come after the Kyiv government made repeated calls for the West to send more weapons, including long-range artillery.
Russia, which accuses the West of prolonging the conflict by giving Ukraine more weapons, says it is carrying out a “special military operation” aimed at preserving its security against NATO expansion.
(Report Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Sachin Ravikumar, written by Stine Jacobsen; French version Nicolas Delame, edited by Tangi Salaün)