By Nur Asena Erturk
The Nordic and Baltic countries on Wednesday reiterated their continued support for embattled Ukraine, according to an official statement.
Defense ministers from Nordic countries, Baltic countries, the Netherlands, Poland, the UK, Germany, and Ukraine gathered in Denmark for a two-day meeting to discuss the war in Ukraine.
The defense ministers, hosted by their Danish counterpart Troels Lund Poulsen, "reaffirmed their steadfast support to Ukraine and their commitment to continue and develop Northern Europe’s military assistance to Ukraine and to strengthen industrial cooperation," according to an official statement from the Danish Defense Ministry released afterwards.
"The Ministers agreed to reinforce and advance the military support to Ukraine, including through the involvement of the Northern European and Ukrainian defence industry. This will further bolster Ukraine’s industrial and technological capacity as well as the potential of the European defence industry,” the statement also said.
The participants also emphasized that "there can be no peace talks without Ukraine," and also "discussed the threats and challenges to the security of Eastern borders of the Alliance."
The Northern Group was created as an informal group including the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark.
The pledge comes two months before Donald Trump returns to the Oval office for his second term as US president, calling into question continued US support for Ukraine. Trump has criticized the $64.1 billion in military aid the US has given Ukraine and pledged to end the war quickly, through unknown means.
The likely withdrawal of US support has spurred many European countries to underline their continued support, though it is unclear if that would be enough to sustain Kyiv’s war effort, over 1,000 days into the conflict, which was launched by Russia in February 2022.