Norway pledges around $940 million to train and equip Ukrainian brigade
The initiative is part of a broader Nordic-Baltic effort to support Ukraine's land forces. Norway will take the lead role in the training component, working in close coordination with Ukrainian authorities and allied nations.
'Norway stands united with Europe for stronger support for Ukraine, politically, economically, and militarily,' Sandvik said. 'Our contribution is both material from our own defense and acquisitions of ammunition and materiel from Ukrainian and international industry. Not least, we will contribute with training.'
Instead of establishing an entirely new brigade, the initiative will concentrate on developing modular units — smaller components designed to integrate into and strengthen Ukraine's existing brigades. These brigades typically comprise 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers and possess a variety of combat capabilities that enable them to operate independently.
'Under Norwegian leadership, the Nordic and Baltic countries work closely with Ukrainian authorities to ensure that the training and equipment meet Ukrainian needs as well as possible,' Sandvik explained.
The previous initiatives to have Ukraine's Western backers train and equip new brigades were highly controversial.
The 155th Brigade was intended to be a flagship project for Ukrainian brigades trained and armed with the assistance of foreign partners. French President Emmanuel Macron announced in June that France would provide training and military supplies as part of this initiative.
Despite Paris fulfilling its commitments for training and arms provision, an investigation led by Yurii Butusov, editor-in-chief of Ukrainian media outlet Censor.net, pointed to problems in the brigade's creation and management, allegedly leading to 1,700 cases of soldiers going AWOL from the unit before firing a shot.
During the Brussels summit, Sandvik also held a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.
According to Bloomberg, Norway also joined the U.K. in pledging a joint $585 million military aid package to Ukraine. The U.K. will contribute £350 million ($455 million), while Norway will provide £100 million ($130 million) through the U.K.-led International Fund for Ukraine.That package includes support for the repair of previously delivered equipment, radar systems, anti-tank mines, and hundreds of thousands of drones.
Earlier this week, Oslo also committed $454 million to procure artillery shells for Ukraine.
Read also: Inside Ukraine's desperate race to train more soldiers
We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
24 minutes ago
- The Hill
Zelensky doubles down: ‘We will never leave the Donbas'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said the country would not cede portions of the Donbas region to Russia amid ceasefire talks. 'We will never leave the Donbas' Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday, per NewsNation. 'Everyone forgets the first part of the film [Crimea],' he added. His comments come days before President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet in Alaska without Zelensky for peace discussions, which the Ukrainian leader has dismissed. 'Any decisions made against us, any decisions made without Ukraine, are at the same time decisions against peace,' he said Saturday. 'They will bring nothing. These are dead decisions; they will never work.' Trump has already signaled that a ' land swap ' may be necessary to end the war. Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022 and captured most of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions within Donbas. The Kremlin has already expressed a desire to keep Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson before committing to ending the violent strikes in Eastern Europe. However, Zelensky said 'Donbas for the Russians is a springboard for a future new offensive.' 'If today we leave Donbas, from our fortifications, from our reliefs, from the heights that we control, we will clearly open a bridgehead for preparing an offensive by the Russians. In a few years, Putin will have an open path to both the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions. And not only that. Also to Kharkiv,' he added, according to PoliticoEU. Kherson was previously occupied by Russia but eventually liberated by Ukraine in 2022. Ukraine currently controls both Kherson and Zaporizhzhya, which serve as administrative centers in their regions. While Zelensky has nixed the idea of overturning land masses to end the war, he has also urged both Trump and Putin to consider adding finite conditions to any peace agreements to ensure the war's end. 'The territorial issue cannot be raised without security guarantees,' Zelensky told reporters.
New York Post
24 minutes ago
- New York Post
At Trump-Putin summit, a non-negotiable demand: return Ukraine's kidnapped kids
In February, President Donald Trump offered a ray of hope to thousands of Ukraine's families. 'I believe I could, yes,' he said, when asked if he could convince President Vladimir Putin to return the more than 19,500 Ukrainian children Russia has abducted during its three-year full-scale invasion. 'It's pretty tough stuff, but I believe I could do that.' Advertisement On Friday, he'll have his chance. The Aug. 15 Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska offers the perfect moment for the president to raise this issue directly — and to make it unmistakably clear that freeing Ukraine's children must be a prerequisite to any peace deal. The UN's Commission on Ukraine has recognized Russia's actions as a war crime, and the European Court of Human Rights holds Russia responsible for these abductions. Advertisement Yet no international organization has managed to force the children's return. Since the start of Putin's invasion, Russia has subjected thousands of stolen kids to catastrophic risks including human trafficking, illegal adoptions, identity erasure and militarization. As Washington and Moscow prepare for the Alaska meeting, new revelations are adding to the horror: According to the Ukrainian NGO Save Ukraine, Russia has launched an online 'catalog' of kidnapped children, sorting kids by age, eye color and number of siblings. And it doesn't stop at physical traits, but lists personality profiles — obedience, submissiveness, attitude toward authority, self-care skills — alongside clear photographs. Advertisement 'These children are not 'war orphans.' They had names, families, and Ukrainian citizenship,' wrote Save Ukraine founder Mykola Kuleba. 'This is not care. It's state-sponsored child trafficking.' 'A catalog with photos and descriptions is ideal material for child traffickers . . . an invitation to pedophiles and organized criminal networks in Russia.' No civilized society can justify such a database, which demonstrates Russia's clear intention to keep rather than return these kidnapped kids. Advertisement This week, Trump has the chance to save them. Ukraine is seeking their return, and the international community — from Argentina to Japan — is demanding it. Trump, too, must insist on it, and should make it a central element of pressure on Putin during Friday's summit. Congress has already signaled bipartisan support. This is one of those rare issues that raises no doubts due to its absolute moral clarity. In May, senators from both parties introduced Senate Resolution 236, urging the administration to ensure the return of abducted Ukrainian children before finalizing any peace deal. The House introduced a matching bipartisan resolution. But Russia has brushed off every demand. At a June meeting in Istanbul, Ukraine raised the issue at the negotiating table and provided a list with 339 names of abducted children as a test of Moscow's ability to act in good will. Advertisement Kremlin delegate Vladimir Medinsky reportedly mocked the request for their return: 'Don't put on a show for European compassionate aunties who don't have children themselves,' he said. Ultimately, Russia released just six children from the list — out of 339 cases submitted and more than 19,500 documented by Kyiv. Trump has repeatedly voiced frustration at the lack of progress toward a deal that will put this destructive war to an end. He is right: For months, Putin's empty promises and delay tactics have held off peace. Advertisement On the contrary, Russia last month launched a record number of assault drones at Ukrainian cities, targeting schools, hospitals and residential neighborhoods — terrorizing civilians and signaling Putin's disregard for Trump's peace efforts. So it's no surprise that the president, weary of Moscow's games, expects tangible results from the meeting in Alaska. Trump knows better than anyone that peace can only be achieved through strength: He made that message a hallmark of his presidential campaign. Advertisement He has promised tough sanctions if Putin refuses a cease-fire or fails to show genuine readiness for peace — not one based on absurd demands. This summit must give Putin one last chance to prove he's serious. Any substantial peace deal will obviously require a seat for Ukraine at the table. The nation must be involved in talks about its own future. And while the Trump administration says both Russia and Ukraine will have to make concessions, Moscow has not identified a single substantive compromise. Advertisement If Russia wants to prove good faith to the United States, the return of Ukraine's abducted children can and should be its first step. Trump, an experienced negotiator, can secure this crucial concession. Doing so could be his Nobel Peace Prize moment — what can be more sacred than freeing the innocent? And Putin must return to Moscow with a crystal-clear understanding: Ukrainian children are not bargaining chips, and they'd better be returned ASAP. Katya Pavlevych is an adviser on the issue of abducted Ukrainian children at Razom for Ukraine, where Ostap Yarysh is a media adviser.
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Why Putin thinks he can win in Ukraine despite huge Russian death toll
Putin is under pressure to agree to a ceasefire. Few leaders would continue to pursue a war that has cost around a million casualties and where outright victory looks impossible. But while he might agree to an end to the exchange of drone barrages, which are causing huge damage to Russian oil and gas facilities, the bloody ground war is likely to continue. While Russia may be suffering a thousand casualties a day, the grim mathematics involved means that Putin can take those losses and see the result as a win, because no amount of human suffering weighs in his calculus. Advertisement Russia is advancing, but at a slow rate and huge cost. In June, Russia gained about 190 square miles or less than 0.1% of Ukrainian territory. As Michael Kofman recently noted after a trip to Ukraine, mass attacks with armored vehicles are vanishingly rare. Pervasive drone surveillance means any movement is spotted miles before it reaches the front line, and a mass of First Person View drones hits any assault group long before it gets within sight of Ukrainian forces. Instead, attacks are a matter of trying to infiltrate the lightly held Ukrainian lines. Russian forces advance stealthily or rapidly on foot, trying to get through the barrage of FPV drones. Advertisement 'Russian attacks are sometimes in 4-6-man groups, but in many cases have decreased to numerous 2-3-man sections trying to penetrate in between Ukrainian positions,' Kaufman notes. 'Russian infantry seeks to advance as far as possible past Ukraine's initial line and entrench there. Although many may be lost, some get through and entrench, awaiting reinforcements. Much the same can be said of motorcycle and buggy assaults. . . . Most fail, but not all, leading to small tactical advances.' Losses are high and successes rare. But if commanders throw enough troops against a line for long enough, they eventually push it back. Some reports suggest that the casualties are a point of pride among Russian commanders, who boast about the number of troops they lost to gain a position — ''I killed five Storm units to take this village' is a typical attitude, according to Russian bloggers translated by Chris_O. Advertisement Casualty rates of 80% or more among assault units are reportedly commonplace, with injured survivors rounded up and forced to join the next wave — even on crutches. Technical specialists and other troops are drafted into assault units. The entire crew of Russia's only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, was sent ashore, reorganized as a naval infantry unit, and deployed to the Pokrovsk sector in 2024. Ukrainian casualties are unknown but likely very much lighter. Defending forces typically only lose a fraction as many as attackers. And very few Ukrainian soldiers now have contact with the enemy as drones take on more and more of the fighting. But as long as Russia's war machine gets a supply of fresh bodies, it can continue to advance. Advertisement According to the Institute for the Study of War, in 2024, each square mile cost around 150 Russian casualties. By mid-2025, Ukrainian Presidential Office Deputy Head Pavlo Palisa gave a figure of 432 casualties per square mile. It is expensive territory, but Putin wants to buy it because he can. Casualties on this scale might be unthinkable to Western nations, but in Russia, few people seem troubled by the scale of losses, as far as they are aware of them. 'Many people are actually not aware of the nature and scale of casualties,' Samuel Bendett, an expert on the Russian scene and advisor to the CNAS and CSIS think tanks, told me. 'And the official propaganda and all manner of social media tools such as pro-Kremlin Telegram channels state that sacrifices are necessary.' Russia takes great pride in the many giant cemeteries honoring the over 20 million Soviet dead lost in WWII, known as the Great Patriotic War. War in Russia is all about sacrifice for the Motherland, the individual dying and achieving glory for the greater good. Putin made this exact point in a televised meeting with the mother of a dead soldier in 2022. 'Some people die in road accidents, others from alcohol — when they die, it's unclear how. But your son lived, do you understand? He fulfilled his purpose,' Putin told the mother. Advertisement One of the main reasons there is no public outcry is that the men dying are not young conscripts (known as 'Mobiks') but contract soldiers ('Kontraktniki') who sign up voluntarily for a fixed duration. The Mobiks, perhaps 25% of the army, are kept well back, Kontraktniki go to the front. The amounts of money on offer are, to Russians, staggering. One region offers a million rubles (about $12,000), while the national government adds another 400,000 (about $5,000) to new soldiers. In some of the poorer Russian regions like the Caucasus, the average monthly is just 35,000 rubles ($400). Signing on the army is like winning a game show — you get several years' salary in one lump and are seen as a sort of patriotic hero. And if the recruit is killed, their families get a lavish payout, at least in theory. 'Many underprivileged men see it as an opportunity to earn money and do something really great in their generally miserable life,' notes analyst Kirill Shamiev in a detailed Twitter thread on public opinion in Russia. Advertisement Recruits typically come from deprived areas, and as Russia's economy disintegrates in slow motion, the bonanza offered by the army looks increasingly appealing. Because Russia is not seeking high quality troops, they will take anyone. An RBC report from the city of Mordovia describes how the recruiters visit homeless shelters looking for recruits, regardless of their mental condition or whether they are drug addicts or alcoholics: 'People who show at least minimal interest are immediately offered to sign a contract for military service.' In the early years of the war, Russia had thousands of convicts who were recruited directly from prisons under a special program, and mercenaries like the Wagner group, both of which took disproportionate casualties because they were expendable without affecting public opinion. While these sources have dried up, Russia can now also count on North Korean troops, who again are thrown into the most intense combat and suffer a high rate of casualties. Advertisement But most of those that are being fed into the meat grinder are Kontraktniki, and Russia is recruiting them, and losing them, at a rate of around 30,000 a month. A country of 140 million can sustain losses at this rate for a considerable period. And as long as they are seen as patriotic volunteers dying for a cause — 'fulfilling their purpose' as Putin has it — there is no public outcry. From Putin's point of view, this slow, grinding advance is a winning strategy. He is gaining territory and counting on Ukraine facing a political crisis in the coming months. If a future ceasefire freezes the existing situation on the ground, every day of fighting is a day of progress. Advertisement Several things could change this: accelerating economic collapse, more military aid to Ukraine, or a successful Ukrainian offensive. Without these, expect the bloodshed to continue. Reprinted with permission from Forbes.
