STOCKHOLM, March 31— Sweden announced a new military aid package to Ukraine worth 16 billion krona (RM7 billion) on Monday, the biggest package to date from the Nordic country, saying it wanted to help Kyiv strengthen its position in talks on ending the war.
The bulk of the package, nine billion krona (RM3.98 billion), will consist of new equipment that will be purchased in processes led by the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, said Defence Minister Pal Jonson during a press conference.
Around five billion krona (RM2.21 billion) will be financial donations for Ukraine's defence industry.
"We are now at a critical stage of the war. Our focus is now on supporting Ukraine as much as possible so that they can get into a position of strength during these negotiations," he said.
Jonson added that all European countries now need to increase their support to Ukraine.
"More need to do more," he said.
Since taking office in January, United States (US) President Donald Trump has sought to broker a ceasefire to end fighting in the three-year-old war in Ukraine.
Jonson, when asked if Europe has the financial and production capacity to take on more of the responsibility if the US scales down, said: "I am slightly more concerned with the defence industrial production than the financial resources."
"The EU alone has an economy eight times as big as Russia, so if there is a will, there is a way for extensive support. The limitation has been the defence industrial production in Europe, which has been adapted to peacetime," he said.
The government has said Sweden will ramp up aid to Ukraine this year, boosting the 2025 budget allocation to 40 billion krona (RM17.6 billion) from 25 billion (RM11 billion) projected earlier to aid Kyiv's fight against the Russian invasion.
Including the new package, Sweden's military support since 2022 totals 80 billion krona (RM35.3 billion).
— Bernama
