Since the beginning of the military aggression against Ukraine, the Republic of Latvia has been actively involved in the process of assistance to our country. Latvia is one of the countries with the largest amount of aid to Ukraine relatively to its GDP. The country provides Ukrainians with comprehensive and long-term support, including political, military, reconstruction, economic, financial and humanitarian assistance. Latvia assists Ukraine both bilaterally and through international programmes. This year, overall support for Ukraine will reach €850 million.
On April 11, during a working visit to Lithuania, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs signed a bilateral security agreement. According to the agreement, the Republic of Latvia will provide Ukraine with military assistance at the level of 0.25% of GDP annually. In addition, Latvia makes a 10-year commitment to support Ukraine in cyber defence, demining, drone technology, and will unconditionally facilitate a path to EU and NATO membership.
In 2024, the state support for Ukraine from Latvia will exceed €200 million, of which military assistance will amount to approximately €112 million.
Moreover, Latvia has made international contributions of €36 million to the European Peace Fund, the United Nations Children’s Fund, NATO’s assistance programme for Ukraine, etc. Ukraine has also received humanitarian aid in the amount of €48 million.
The Latvian government has approved a new package of comprehensive assistance to Ukraine for 2024. The country will provide almost €10 million, of which €5.3 million will be used to rebuild Ukraine, including the reconstruction of social infrastructure, psychological assistance to women, digitalisation, spatial planning consultations and projects on the integration of Ukraine to the European Union. The Government of Latvia has allocated another €4.3 million to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine through the European Peace Fund.
Latvia together with the United Kingdom led the Drone Coalition for Ukraine to provide the Armed Forces of Ukraine with one million drones. The Latvian government has already decided to supply the first batch of drones to Ukraine, which will be delivered to the AFU in the nearest future. In total, the country plans to allocate at least €10 million for UAVs purchase in 2024.
Furthermore, as part of the new batch of weapons, the Baltic state intends to provide the Ukrainian military with NBS anti-aircraft systems, short-range air defence systems, tactical unmanned systems and other necessary material and technical equipment. This will help to improve both the air defence and intelligence capabilities of Ukraine.
Latvia continues to contribute to the Information Technology Coalition led by Estonia. As part of the IT Coalition, it has provided Ukraine with about €100,000 of communication equipment to provide tactical-level communications to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The country has also provided laptops to modernise logistics processes and deploy a system based on System Analysis Programme Development (SAP).
The Republic of Latvia has joined the initiative of the Czech Republic to purchase 800,000 artillery shells for Ukraine and will provide funding for the purchase of 155 mm shells for a total of about €10 million. At the same time, the country has joined the Coalition for Demining led by Lithuania, providing equipment and training under the UDCG.
The Latvian company Latvenergo has provided Ukraine with a package of equipment to restore its energy infrastructure. The package includes a 250 MVA high-voltage transformer previously used at the Riga HPP, a GR110 compressed air compressor and 60 tonnes of transformer oil.
Latvia stays an important trade partner of Dnipropetrovsk region. The high level of partnerships is evidenced by the bilateral analysis of foreign trade. Latvian enterprises are interested in iron locomotive parts, ferrous metals and products, cocoa and cocoa products, etc. According to the results of 2023, the volume of exports of goods from Dnipropetrovsk region was $20.6 million, and increased by 45.6% compared to 2022.
105 companies in Dnipropetrovsk region exported their products to the Latvian market, including metallurgical enterprises, machine-building, processing and agricultural companies. 
Imports of goods from Latvia to Dnipropetrovsk region increased by 4% compared to 2022 and totalled $32.3 million.
67 importers in the region bought pharmaceuticals, oil and oil products, meat and fish products, coffee and tea, etc.
Import operations were mainly carried out by food and processing companies, trade and pharmaceutical companies.
Source: information for the article was taken from public online sources
