Donors pledge 1.5 billion euros more for Ukraine

A Ukraine donors’ conference in Copenhagen of 26 countries pledged 1.5 billion euros (over $1.5 billion) more aid for training and equipment for Kyiv’s forces, the Danish defence minister said Thursday.

“All the participating nations here pledged for support, for training activities, demining activities, some with concrete donations,” Morten Bodskov said.

“The 1.5 billion euros ($1.5 billion) was brought to the table today. It’s money that will be used in 2022, this year and next year,” he said during a news conference.

The exact amount promised by each of the 26 countries including France, Germany and the United States, was not published but Denmark announced a supplementary donation of $114 million for Ukraine, bringing its total support to Kyiv to $417 million.

Britain, which organised the conference with Denmark and Ukraine, promised nearly $300 million.

“Our partners know that we need funding and they articulated readiness to support us financially,” Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said as he welcomed the money.

“That is a marathon and for a marathon you need energy and frankly speaking, the main energy in this case is money,” he added.

The donors will meet again next month.

“We will work with concrete productions of new artillery,” Bodskov said.

“These are production lines that will be open when we find the finances for them,” he added.

The United States announced earlier this week that it would provide $89 million to Ukraine for removing land mines put in place by Russian forces.

Back in May, a donors’ conference raised more than six billion euros in Warsaw for Kyiv.