The resent stats show the 96% wants to keep Norways Nato membership . But there is still a clear no to EU 73,9%
We are seeing more and more footage of Russian tanks and equipment just left on the side of the roads and also young crying Russian soldiers surrendering, and being thankful for a bit of food, so it seem more and more obvious that Putin gambled on a quick surrender and lost, and so his large invasion army simply ran out of food and gas and is most likely totally demoralized by now, unlike the Ukrainians.
The Russian strategy seems either very strange og a total failure. over 60km with Russian vehicles for 3-4 days almost without movement. Soldiers refusing to fight the Ukrainians, surrendering or leaving their vehicles behind and returning to Russia on foot.
I do not think it has been mentioned, but Finland have pledged or already send : 1,500 single-shot anti-tank weapons, 2,500 assault rifles, 150,000 cartridges for the attack rifles. 2,000 composite helmets and 2,000 bulletproof vests, as well as 100 stretchers and equipment for two emergency medical care stations. Finland will also supply 70,000 combat ration packages to Ukraine.
Nordic support to Ukraine so far : Denmark Have so far pledged or already send : 2,700 M72 EC (Enhanced Capacity) anti tank weapons, and also 300 surface-to-air stinger missiles, besides a fully equipped field hospital, 700 IFAK Individual First Aid Kits, 2,000 bulletproof vests + $112.5 million worth of humanitarian and other support. Norway : Have so far pledged or already send : 2,000 M72 LAW anti-tank weapons, besides 1,500 bulletproof vests, 5,000 helmets, 15,000 field rations, 1,000 gas masks with filters, 2,000 sleeping bags, 10,000 sleeping pads + $28.3 million (that can be increased up to $226.4 million) worth of humanitarian aid and support. Finland: Have pledged or already send : 1,500 M72 LAW single-shot anti-tank weapons, 2,500 assault rifles + 150,000 cartridges for the rifles. 2,000 bulletproof vests, as well as 2,000 composite helmets and 100 stretchers and equipment for two emergency medical care stations. Finland will also supply 70,000 combat ration packages to Ukraine. + $15.6 million worth of humanitarian aid and support. Sweden : Have pledged or already send : 5,000 AT4 Pansarskott m/86 anti-tank weapons, 5,000 body armor, 5 000 helmets and 135,000 field rations + $10.4 million worth of humanitarian aid and other support.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has just said on TV that Denmark will significantly increase it's defense budget and also aim to become independent of Russian natural gas in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Putin has now managed to accomplish in two weeks what no US President have been able to pressure or persuade Denmark to do since NATO was established in 1949, which is to increase the defense spending to reach the magic 2% of GDP, equivalent to an increase in annual defense spending with around $2.7 billion a year. The Danish Parliament has also agreed to set aside a bit more than $1 billion more over the next two years to strengthen Danish defense, diplomacy and humanitarian efforts. Furthermore, they also have agreed that a referendum should be held on June 1 this year, on whether to participate in the EU's Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP), almost 30 years after the Danes chose to opt-out on that possibility. Participating in the CSDP will enable Denmark to take part in joint EU military operations and to cooperate on development and acquisition of military capabilities within the EU framework, besides also being a member of NATO. https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...nce-policy-this-year-danish-media-2022-03-06/
I must say that I'm a bit disappointed with the USA effort so far. Ukraine are doing quite well on the ground and against tanks, but they really are desperate for surface-to-air missiles and the US have only donated 200 stingers so far, but will not confirm if more will be coming. in comparison, the UK have so far not donated any, while The Netherlands have donated 200 stingers, Germany have donated 500 stingers while Denmark have now donated 400 surplus stinger from it's inventory and due to the DANEP, Latvia acquired an unspecified quantity (a guestimate would be 500) of older surplus decommissioned Stinger missiles from Denmark back in 2017 and have now likewise donated an unspecified, but fairly large quantity of these stingers to Ukraine. They work perfectly fine, but obviously are an older-version stingers from the mid 90's.
Denmark is now preparing to receive over 100,000 refugees from Ukraine, or 5 times more than earlier estimated. Around 24,000 Ukrainian's (almost all being women and children) have already applied for residency in Denmark under the recent special law for Ukrainian refugees, with 2,000 of them also applying for asylum straight away, Immigration Minister Mattias Tesfaye said at a briefing. “I’d like to stress that this doesn’t mean that 100,000 Ukrainians are guaranteed to live in Denmark in a few months. Nobody knows how many will end up coming here,” Tesfaye said. More than $295 million have already been set aside to cover the expenses of taking in 20,000 Ukrainian refugees. Some of that money has already been diverted from the Danish development aid to Syria, Mali, Bangladesh and Burkina Faso, and with more Ukrainian refugees coming in, further funds could be taken from the foreign development budget. “The primary aim of the government’s foreign development strategy is that refugees must be helped in near areas [to conflict, ed.]. Denmark has now actually become a near area, and a special responsibility follows that. There is therefore no contradiction between what our strategy states and what we are doing now,” Minister for Foreign Development Flemming Møller Mortensen said. War-torn Syria and neighboring regions stand to lose $7.4 million kroner due to the decision. Mali, which is plagued by terror groups, loses $10.4 million kroner, and Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest countries, will lose $14.8 million kroner in Danish aid spending.
As earlier mentioned Denmark is going to increase the defense spending to reach the magic 2% of GDP, equivalent to an increase in annual defense spending with around $2.7 billion more a year. The Danish Parliament has also set aside a bit more than $1 billion more over the next two years to strengthen Danish defense, diplomacy and humanitarian efforts. And now also want to spend an estimated $10.5 billion on receiving over 100,000 refugees from Ukraine. Now where is all this money going to come from you may ask ?, not least with also a Corona crisis and inflation going on at the same time, all over the world. The Corona crisis had cost at least $11.9 billion in actual identifiable corona-related expenses, from March 2020 to the end of June 2021. The vast majority of that money, $11.9 billion was spend on financially compensating private companies, while the rest has been spend on actual corona related heath issues and masks, testing and so forth, but the paradox is, that when you spend an excessive amount of money, it kind of also create jobs and generate more money for the Danish State and government finances, and the figures for 2021 have just been released, showing a surprisingly large $8.6 billion surplus, despite of the corona crisis and all that was spend on it, and in light of a, not alarming, but $640 million deficit in 2020. So it seems that the Parliament have made strategically good and clever rational decisions about how and where to spend the taxpayers money, and not in a "corona-panic", just randomly throwing billions out the window and down the drain.
Not to confuse anyone, the numbers are all in US $ and not in Danish kroner (crowns), somehow it ended up saying both $ and Kroner, when I did a copy-past of the calculation from kroner to $. Perhaps I should add that if 100,000 Ukrainians eventually end up in Denmark, the number of refugees the Nordic country will take in will far outstrip that from both the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s and the 2015 refugee crisis. Around 18,000 people from the former Yugoslavia came to Denmark as a result of the wars in the Balkans region, while 30,000 Syrian refugees including reunified family members came to Denmark following the 2015 crisis. So this would be by far the highest number of displaced refugees to come to Denmark since World War II, without comparison to anything we’ve seen since.
Carlsberg shutting down for good in Russia. The Danish Carlsberg Group breweries (Baltika/Балтика) with 8,500 Russian employees, have so far closed for all imports to Russia of all their Danish and foreign brands sold in Russia (mainly Tuborg, Kronenbourg 1664, Holsten, Grimbergen, Somersby and S&R's Garage, but the list is long) and are now also shutting down their local Russian brand and brewery Baltika/Балтика which is the 2nd largest brewery in Europe. It's to be sold completely, so Carlsberg will no longer be represented in the country. Until then, operations will be maintained on a reduced scale. Russia's best-selling beer the Baltika brand, stood for around a 3rd of the total market share of all beer sold in Russia last year, and a $950 million turnover. The Baltika brewery and brand itself is worth $3 billion according to the latest Carlsberg accounts. Besides Russia's best-selling beer brand Baltika/Балтика, the brewery also produce numerous other Russian brands like Zhigulevskoye Pivo (the oldest former Russian brewery and brand), Uralsky Master, Sibirsky Bochonok, Barhatnoe, Zolotoy Khan, Leningradskoe, Arsenalnoe, Chelyabinskoye Zhivoye, Bolshaya Kruzhka, Sverdlovskoe svetloe, Khlebny Krai, Zapovednoye, Nevskoe/Nevskaye, Rizhskoe, Don, DV, Samara, Dragon, Sarbast, Zatecky Gus, Morsberry, Khmel & Friends.
The Danes clearly has take the "lead" on the "thought" response towards Russia in Scandinavia. On my way to a kids football match a few weeks ago I met a column of Polish military vehicles on their way back from Cold response. Students are sendt home with Iodine tablets just in case of a nuclear war. The bomb rooms are cleared and tested. The government urgues people to stock up a emergency stock with water and dry food. Homeland security are increases the exercises and The government will allocate NOK 3 billion NOK to increase activity and preparedness for the Armed Forces.
It seems Sweden and Finland will apply to join Nato in the near future. The news say Sweden and Finland has agreed to apply together in may. Im sure this will make the defense cooperation even better among the nordic countries. https://www.aftenposten.no/verden/i...es-nato-soeknad-i-mai-kan-bli-med-til-hoesten
Denmark and Poland has connected the Baltic Pipe. A Norwegian gas pipe. The pipe will be in full operation in 2023. https://e24.no/olje-og-energi/i/Kz4...k-gassroer?referer=https://www.aftenposten.no
Quantum Technologies NATO have now revealed that their new 'Center for Quantum Technologies - for defense and security', is going to be placed in Denmark, primarily based at the Niels Bohr Institute, so good luck to Putin and his old-ass hypersonic technology. New ships for the Danish navy and Ukraine. Being the land of LEGO, flexible modules is a Danish specialty, also when it comes to the Danish navy ships, and the company in the videos below promise that their platform solution modules and equipment already mounted can be fully exchanged and replaced within only 4 hours. The Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure (Міністерство інфраструктури України) now have a signed deal in place with the Danish navy for the delivery of Danish ship design and technology to the Ukrainian Coast Guard (State Border Guard Service) as well as search and rescue service, when the war is over. The vessels will, if possible, be built in Ukraine on the basis of new Danish design and technology as shown in the videos below : The partnership will specifically support the reconstruction of the Ukrainian shipbuilding industry and thus a rebuilding of Ukraine’s maritime capacity in the future. Volodymyr Zelensky even mentioned this is a speech broadcast he gave to the Danish parliament, this time surprisingly not asking for more weapons, but focusing on exactly this issue instead and his specific wish for Denmark to rebuild the city of Mykolaiev and it's shipyard. https://www.navalnews.com/naval-new...rk-mou-for-danish-ship-design-and-technology/
Finland and Sweden in NATO ? In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, then Finland and Sweden are now about to decide if they will join NATO, besides already participating in the EU's Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). fact is, that when we talk about the EU, it's not only an economic and trade Union of European countries, but is also a Security and Defense Union and Article 222 of the EU’s Treaty of Lisbon include a guarantee that a country in crisis or under military attack will be assisted by other members. No one know Russian politics better than Finland and so have managed their "relationship" better than anyone else since WW2. When they now finally want to join NATO, it's not in haste due to irrational reasons or fear, but is because they now see no other possible options due to Putin's actions. Sweden are not as experienced with Russian relations and politics, and so are no experts regarding this issue and will most surely follow suit and do as Finland. Here in Denmark military experts do not believe 1 second that Russia will be using nukes against Ukraine or Finland and Sweden. First of all, Russia did nothing but spew the same kind of threats, but did nothing, when the Baltics joined NATO, and if you look closely at the Russian threats against Sweden and Finland, they have not changed to anything worse than the usual, and they are still mainly talking about sanctions, if and when Finland and Sweden have joined NATO, and not before they have joined, unlike in the case of Ukraine. The threat of moving long range nukes a bit closer to their borders also makes no difference, but is just an empty threat from Russia. What the Russians are well aware of but most people seem to forget is, that both Sweden and Finland are already members of the EU, unlike Ukraine, so there is no chance Russia is going to attack or invade. Not to forget that that the Russian "bear" is now badly stuck and both getting declawed and declawing itself in Ukraine. So Putin has already placed Russia in more trouble than they can handle. The Baltic countries Unlike Ukraine, the Baltic countries can afford to poke the Russian "bear", because they are NATO members and also in the DANEP (Danish Eastern Neighborhood Partnership). In Estonia a UK battle battalion (around 800 men, artillery and armored vehicles) and a French Tank squadron and engineer platoon of 337 men is stationed. In Latvia a Canadian a Mechanized infantry company with armored fighting vehicles with 572 men are stationed + likewise a Spanish Mechanized infantry company with armored fighting vehicles with 346 men and an Italian Infantry company and Short Range Air Defense platoon with 250 men, a Polish Tank company with 177 men and a Slovakian Artillery battery of 152 men are stationed. In Lithuania a German armored company of 543 men, including 2 mechanized infantry platoons, 1 tank platoon and 1 engineer platoon. 1 mechanized infantry company of 270 men from The Netherlands, 1 Armored infantry company of 150 men with main battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles from Norway and a Ground Based Air Defense unit of 135 men from the Czech Republic and now an armored battalion of up to 1,000 troops + 6 F-35 fighter jets from the USA. Besides the NATO troops above, then Denmark have stationed the (surface-to-air cruise missile) Iver Huitfeldt-class frigate-destroyer HDMS Peter Willemoes and the Absalon-class frigate HDMS Esbern Snare to patrol in the waters around the Baltics, and have 4 F-16 fighter jets stationed in Lithuania, to support the Baltic Air Policing. The Danish Parliament have now also send a full battle battalion of 1,000 soldiers to Latvia, which include an armored infantry company (tanks and armored vehicles), a mechanized infantry company (with long ranged artillery), a mobile air defense radar and a staff company, also including snipers, plus one more frigate and an extra F-16 fighter jet. So 5 F-16 and 3 frigates in all (including a frigate-destroyer. Denmark have 3 frigate-destroyers and 6 frigates available). Perhaps I should add, that while Ukraine no longer have a navy, Finland and Sweden rely on submarines and small patrol vessels, with no missile defense or missile capability, so neither Finland, Sweden or the Baltic countries have any surface-to-air cruise missile frigate-destroyers, or even as much as a frigate. So they do need help at sea, to defend their borders.
In Europe we for some reason do not like to use the word "destroyer" so we name and consider our destroyers to be "frigates" though they are obviously too heavy and heavily armed to be frigates. The Danish frigate-destroyers are not only armed with surface-to-air cruise missiles, but also able to use tomahawk missiles and nukes, though nukes are not a part of the Danish missile defense.
More Danish military donations to Ukraine When visiting Ukraine 21. April and also getting to see the damage in the outskirts of Kiev, the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen later told President Zelenskyy that the Danish parliament had decided to send an additional $85 million worth of weaponry to Ukraine. it has now been revealed that it among other things will be heavy anti-tank mines and newly upgraded M113 armored personal carriers you can see in the video below. Denmark gradually phased out the M113’s in 2017, replacing them all with the Piranha V, but still keeping 125 M113’s for military operations abroad only (Afghanistan and such) and so they were still being upgraded as late as in 2019, but were to be totally phased out here in 2022, so perhaps this timing came in "handy" for Ukraine, otherwise they would all have been sold or shipped off to the Baltic countries later this year. Danish and Spanish PM visit Ukraine Euro news (German)
Will they be stationed there permanently or just for upcoming exercises? How is Denmark able to contribute to such a large degree? Are other regional nations like Norway or Germany offering something similar (per capita)?
At sea, the USA have contributed with 2 destroyers in the Baltic area, but only for a short term exercise, just as it is the case with other NATO countries, but because of the DANEP, Denmark now contribute permanently (so long as Russia is invading Ukraine) with a frigate-destroyer and two frigates to patrol and defend the borders of the Baltic countries and Finland.
It has been confirmed by the Danish Prime Minister and department of defense that Denmark have donated 50 of the M113’s and also 25 Piranha III as part of an additional $85 million free package of weaponry from Denmark to Ukraine. The package also include anti-tank mines and 25 drones worth $3.5 million from the Danish developer and manufacturer of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). Sky-Watch, these specific drones are especially being made for Ukraine and paid for by the Danish Government. It's a military secret what kind of drones, but some of them have now already been delivered. The 25 Piranha III Ukraine will be getting, were made and delivered to Denmark in 1997, so they are not of the older models of Piranha, and have been upgraded and used with success in missions in both Iraq and Afghanistan.