Norway Provides Ukrainian Navy With $240M for Minehunting & Autonomy
On Monday, the Norwegian government announced a new grant of about $240 million to support Ukraine's navy in its fight against Russian forces in the Black Sea. The grant includes financing for the joint Norwegian/British Maritime Capability Coalition, a capacity-building partnership for Ukraine's naval forces.
The Maritime Capability Coalition's centerpiece was the transfer of two Royal Navy minehunters to Ukraine's navy, along with extensive British-provided training for their crews. However, the vessels cannot get to Ukraine because Turkey has closed the Bosporus to warship traffic. They have been waiting in the UK since January.
As well as bolstering Ukraine's Black Sea security, the coalition also aims to help Ukraine make its navy more compatible and interoperable with NATO forces.
The new round of Norwegian funding will go towards autonomy and innovation, two areas in which Ukraine has been a global leader in naval development over the past few years. Ukraine's suicide drone boats have taken a severe toll on Russia's Black Sea Fleet, and its missile and drone strikes have effectively driven the Russian naval threat out of the western Black Sea. This has allowed Ukraine to reopen a commercial sea corridor from Odessa to the Bosporus, enabling exports of Ukrainian grain with less risk of Russian attacks on merchant ships.
"It is essential to protect the Ukrainian population and Ukrainian infrastructure from attacks by Russia's Black Sea Fleet," Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said Monday. "It is also important to protect exports by sea of grain and other products, which generate crucial revenues for Ukraine."
Norway is also going to provide new equipment and training to Ukrainian personnel to help them detect and defuse mines - another major threat in the Black Sea. "Mines pose a significant threat to maritime security and safe passage in the Black Sea, and mine clearance operations are very difficult," Norway’s Defense Minister Bjorn Arild Gram said.
On the same day as the announcement, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the headquarters of the Norwegian Navy at the Haakonsvern naval base. He was briefed on confidential information about Russian intelligence activities in Scandinavia, and agreed to share British expertise on identifying subsea listening devices planted by Russia's covert maritime surveillance program.
"Norway is a natural partner for the UK, both on outlook and our low-key approach to just getting on with the job, and so it makes sense that our some of our most discreet and sensitive work is carried out alongside them," a UK government source told The Telegraph.