Norway to almost double support program for Ukraine to $13 billion
The Norwegian government proposes to increase funding for the Nansen Support Program for Ukraine to 135 billion Norwegian kroner ($12.7 billion) and extend it for another three years, until 2030.
This was announced by Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, according to the Norwegian government's website.
"Norway stands firmly behind Ukraine. Ukraine has a great need for both military and civilian support in its struggle to defend itself against Russia. We are increasing the allocation for 2024 to a total of NOK 27 billion. At the same time, we are extending the Nansen Support Program for Ukraine for another three years and increasing the overall funding structure from NOK 75 billion to NOK 135 billion. Ukraine's ability to defend itself is important for the Ukrainian people as well as for the security and safety of Europe," Jonas Gahr Støre emphasized.
He added that the Norwegian government has already informed the Storting (the Norwegian parliament) about the scope and goals of the support.
Støre noted that the proposed plan is a minimum rather than a maximum amount of funding for Ukraine, and the Norwegian government will constantly assess the need to expand the program. In particular, in 2023 and 2024, NOK 2.5 billion and NOK 7 billion were allocated in addition to the planned amounts to support Ukraine, accordingly.
In particular, the Norwegian government has proposed to increase allocations to Ukraine by another NOK 5 billion in 2024, bringing Norway's total contribution to NOK 27 billion. The new proposal means that civilian support will be increased to NOK 10 billion and military support to NOK 17 billion.
In 2025, the Norwegian government proposed to allocate NOK 15 billion to Ukraine. This is the annual minimum amount under the Support Program. In the government's budget proposal, this funding is equally distributed between civilian and military support.
The Prime Minister of Norway reminded that since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Norway has provided Ukraine with approximately NOK 52.6 billion, of which approximately NOK 28 billion has been allocated for military support and NOK 24 billion for civilian support.
As reported, in February 2023, the Storting (the Norwegian parliament) approved a multi-year support program for Ukraine. The support program is named in honor of Nobel Peace Prize winner Fridtjof Nansen in memory of his outstanding humanitarian work in Ukraine a century ago.
It provides for the allocation of NOK 75 billion to Ukraine over the five-year period 2023-2027, i.e. NOK 15 billion annually, as well as an additional one-year allocation in 2023 of NOK 5 million to developing countries.
