Norway pledges 1billion EUR aid for Ukraine

July 1st, when addressing a news conference in Kyiv alongside Ukrainian President Zelensky, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said Norway wanted to express its solidarity with Ukraine’s fight for survival. “I’m here to say that Ukraine’s fight is not only for Ukraine. This is about some fundamental principles of the world we are going to offer to our children. This is about security in Europe, this is about the fate of your neighbour.” he said. “We will pledge 1 billion euros in support to your country and your people for the remaining part of 2022 and for 2023,” he continued, “This war is a breach of international law. You have the right to defend yourself and we have the right to help you defend yourself.”

Answering the question whether Norway is willing to increase natural gas supplies to Europe, Stoere said Norway was already running “at its maximum” capacity but it would do everything it could to increase the yield. Zelensky said pressure needed to be kept up on Russia so the war would end soon.

Zelenskiy said that Russia had used a Soviet-time Kh-22 missile, originally designed to target aircraft carriers or other large objects, to strike a conventional nine-storey building – reference to a strike in the early hours of Friday (July 1st) to an apartment block near Odesa in which Ukrainian officials said at least 16 people were killed. Russia denied accusation of targeting civilians. Asked on Friday whether Russia had struck the apartment building in the resort village of Serhiivka, the Kremlin spokesman said: “I would like to remind you of the President’s words that the Russian Armed Forces do not work with civilian targets”.