Lithuania has purchased two NASAMS advanced surface-to-air missile systems from the Norwegian company Kongsberg that will be delivered to Ukraine within three months, the Lithuanian government announced on Wednesday.
The announcement coincided with the arrival of Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda in Kiev for talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The launchers of the NASAMS system will arrive in Ukraine in the near future,” Nauseda said on the social network Facebook., quoted by the French agency AFP.
“Even in these circumstances, when supplies are depleted, we find opportunities to help our friends,” he added.
Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas valued the contract at €9.8 million and said the launchers would arrive in Ukraine within three months.
According to the ministry, Norway will provide Ukraine with logistics equipment for the launchers.
The Norwegian/National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAM), in operation since 1998, is a defense system against helicopters, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles (‘drones’) and other aircraft.
Zelensky thanked Nauseda for purchasing the launchers in a post on the social network Twitter.
“It is an important and timely contribution to protecting Ukrainian airspace and saving Ukrainian lives,” Zelensky added.
Lithuania will also send 10 M113 armored personnel carriers to Kiev.
With the munitions to be delivered later this year, Lithuania’s military aid to Ukraine will exceed €500 million, according to the Defense Ministry.
Nauseda and Zelensky are expected to discuss next month’s NATO summit in Vilnius and Ukraine’s candidacy for the European Union (EU).
Lithuania, like the other two Baltic states, Estonia and Latvia, has been in solidarity with Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.
The three countries were part of the Soviet Union for decades before gaining independence in 1991 with the dissolution of the Moscow-led bloc.
They later joined NATO and the EU, two organizations that Ukraine also wants to join.
Source: DN
