Why supporting Ukraine is ‘main priority’ for Norway’s defense chief this year

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A Ukrainian soldier targets a Stinger air defense system (MANPADS) during a joint military training exercise near the border with Belarus. (Photo by DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Norway’s top military officer says supporting Ukraine is his “main priority” for this year, while warning that without more Western help, Kiev is in real danger.

“I’m worried,” Norwegian defense chief General Eirik Kristoffersen told Breaking Defense during a recent visit to Washington, when asked how he sees the conflict in Ukraine in the coming months.

“I said it last January: I don’t see any short-term military solution in Ukraine,” he said. “I received a lot of criticism for that, because we all wanted to ensure that Ukraine would win in the spring offensive. But I couldn’t see that we were investing enough in Ukraine, and I still don’t think we’re investing enough in support. So we must continue to do that.”

Kristoffersen’s comments came before last Monday’s announcement of a new security deal between Norway and Ukraine. Under the agreement, which will be formally signed at a later date, Oslo pledged to provide “long-term military, political, financial and humanitarian support to Ukraine,” according to a statement from Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.

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Although that agreement contained few details, Kristoffersen indicated that Norway could potentially help: “I have said, and I still say, that air defense is the most crucial (capability) for Ukraine right now.”

The CHOD said he is “impressed” by what Ukraine has managed to do, especially since the country has run out of weapons to throw at the Russians over the past six months. (This is expected to change somewhat in the near future, with the US Senate expected to approve long-awaited additional funding for Ukraine in the next 48 hours and the Pentagon promising to quickly send more armaments.)

Kristoffersen specifically cited what Ukraine has managed to achieve in the Black Sea without its own navy.

But, he warned, Russia’s own military is improving faster than he expected, in part because Russia has “effectively entered a war economy” and is now able to produce weapons at a higher rate than in 2023.

“I have more sense of urgency in 2024 than in 2023” about how quickly Russia can rearm its military, he said. “The modernized or rebuilt Russian armed forces are closer to us now than I would say a year ago – also based on what they receive from Iran, from North Korea, and how they have been able to basically not impose sanctions. effect that I would have expected if you had asked me last year.

Doctrinally speaking, Russia is also finally catching up on the lessons learned from the failed 2022 invasion, Kristoffersen warned.

“They learned these lessons that they use. I think it took them a little more time. I think the Ukrainians are much more innovative in the beginning. But if you have a very hierarchical system, you can do that quickly once you learn some lessons that you actually want to implement,” he said. “So if they decide to move from manned to unmanned systems in a certain area, it will happen quickly if they decide to do that.”