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Western partners are adopting the “Danish model” to finance Ukraine’s arms industry.
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Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Lithuania all contributed in this way.
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Enthusiasts say it will help Ukraine become self-sufficient in the long run.
Ukraine’s European partners, hampered by a shortage of military equipment, have been struggling to produce the weapons Kyiv needs to fight Russia.
A growing number are financing the Ukrainian government’s contracts with Ukrainian arms manufacturers to end the shortage, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The move was dubbed the “Danish Model” after Denmark began offering Ukraine aid to boost its defense capabilities earlier this year.
Those who support this model say that Ukraine can produce weapons according to its needs at a lower cost than Western countries, the Journal reported.
Ukraine already has a strong arms manufacturing industry. A report by the Institute for the Study of War stated that Ukraine’s defense industry employed 300,000 workers in about 500 different companies in 2023.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month that the country’s defense industry could produce 4 million a year.
In contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this year that Moscow wanted to increase drone production tenfold to 1.4 million a year.
“Ukraine was the heart of the Soviet Defense Industrial base, so they have a lot of experience when it comes to developing complex systems,” Eric Ciaramella, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment’s Russia and Eurasia Program, told the Journal.
He added that supporting Ukraine’s defense industry allows the West to help ensure Ukraine’s independence.
Last week, Denmark made a new contribution of $138 million to boost Ukraine’s arms industry, according to Reuters.
Sweden, Lithuania, and Norway have also recently offered money in this way, and other countries may soon follow, according to the Journal.
Zelenskyy continued to express concern over the delay in military aid from Ukraine’s Western allies, which rely on advanced weapons such as Patriot and Storm Shadow missiles.
“Every decision that we make, and then everybody together, comes to the end of about a year,” he told Reuters in May.
As Business Insider’s Sinead Baker reported earlier this week, the West has focused on the quality of military weapons over stockpiles, prioritizing high-tech and specialist gear over quantity.
However, the war in Ukraine showed that both are necessary. That encouraged a an increase in the production of weapons that some experts fear will be short-lived.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this month that Biden is “committed to making sure that every dollar that we have is pushed out” before Trump’s January 20 inauguration.
Read the original article on Business Insider