Slovakia stops military aid to Ukraine, and Germany delays supply of the Taurus, but Ukraine’s other partners plan further support.

The President of Slovakia, Zuzana Caputova, opposed the provision of military aid to Ukraine because of the victory in the parliamentary elections of the populist party Smer-SD, which rejected support for Ukraine.

Also, according to Bild, the German government does not plan to supply long-range Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine “in the near future”. Instead, Germany is considering an additional supply of Patriot missiles.

Meanwhile, Lithuania plans to include €340M (0.4% of GDP) in support for Ukraine in its expenditures as part of their 2024 budget.

The government of Norway will increase its defense budget for 2024 by $1.7B to $10.2B. They want to send part of the funds (7.5B crowns) as military aid to Ukraine.

At the same time, the US will speed up production of the most common 155-mm artillery projectile in Ukraine up to 100,000 per month (currently 28,000). It is noteworthy that the US handed over to Ukraine over a million cartridges confiscated from Iran.