After more than a year of full-scale military aggression, Finland supports Ukraine together with international partners. The cost of reimbursing all defense aid packages provided by Finland to Ukraine is now €1.1 billion.

The country’s government condemns the military aggression against Ukraine and fully supports all restrictive measures against the aggressor country – Russia, which are introduced by the European Union. As of January 2023, Russian assets worth about €180 million have been blocked in Finland – real estate, stocks, cars, yachts, planes.

Finland supported the Ukrainian peace formula, first presented by President V. Zelensky at the G20 leaders’ summit on November 15, 2022. The country, in coordination with partner states, is ready to participate in the implementation of the clause of the Ukrainian peace formula regarding the resistance to ecocide and the protection of nature.

In order to alleviate human suffering and help Ukraine in the midst of war, Finland has already allocated €29 million for humanitarian aid this year. Aid in the amount of €5 million will be delivered through the Ukrainian Humanitarian Fund of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. €5.4 million – through the International Food Program and the Red Cross. Part of the humanitarian aid will come through Finnish public organizations. €14 million will go to additional support of the World Bank project “State expenditure on strengthening administrative capacity” – to pay teachers’ salaries.

Finland transferred generators and personal protective equipment to Ukraine. In total, since February 24, Finland has already sent 31 trucks with civil defense equipment to Ukraine, as well as 6 fire engines and 13 “quicks”. The total cost of this aid is more than €3 million.

In addition, €37 million is reserved for 2023 to support Ukraine through development cooperation. The National Education Agency of Finland, the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are currently planning to provide additional aid to the education sector for the period 2024-2027.

In 2023, the Government of Finland agreed to transfer new packages of military aid to Ukraine worth €400 million and €109 million. They included, among other things, anti-aircraft weapons and ammunition.

As part of the “tank coalition”, Finland has provided Ukraine with Leopard 2R demining vehicles, and will also provide training on their use and maintenance. In total, Ukraine received six machines of this type. Also, as part of military aid, the country transferred heavy weapons, namely ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, 120-mm mortars, ammunition, as well as XA-180 armored personnel carriers. In March 2023, the Government of Finland granted Estonia permission to re-export D-30 towed howitzers to Ukraine.

Also, the President of Finland, Sauli Niinisto, ordered to continue the participation of the Armed Forces of his country in military exercises for the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom – until the end of 2023. 

Ukraine and Finland will cooperate in the development of environmental monitoring and ecological construction. This was agreed upon by the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Ruslan Strilets and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Finland Maria Ogisalo within the framework of the visit of the delegation of the Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin to Ukraine in March 2023. During the meeting, they discussed an initiative to transfer Finnish technologies for creating housing, which can not only significantly reduce the cost of building such facilities as schools, kindergartens and family-type children’s homes, but also make them more environmentally friendly. Ukraine and Finland are already working on launching a pilot project for construction using such technologies.

The development of mutually beneficial trade and economic cooperation also remains an important priority of the two countries. The analysis of export and import transactions of Dnipropetrovsk region with Finland demonstrates a high level of partnership relations, because the specified state is an important trade partner of the region.

According to the results of 2022, the volume of exports of goods from Dnipropetrovsk region amounted to $7.4 million. Among the goods that are in demand among Finnish consumers are natural and artificial fur, ferrous metals and products from ferrous metals, machines and equipment, etc.

Export operations were carried out by 22 enterprises from Dnipropetrovsk region. The main exporting companies are enterprises of the metallurgical complex, processing industry, agricultural and machine-building enterprises.

TOP-5 exporting enterprises (ranking by volume of export products):

The import of goods from Finland to the Dnipropetrovsk region amounted to $24.4 million and decreased by 44% compared to 2021. Dnipropetrovsk region traditionally bought: paper and cardboard, fertilizers, pharmaceutical products, oil and its distillation products, machines and equipment, etc.

Import operations were carried out by 61 importer enterprises.

TOP-5 enterprises of importers (ranking by volume of imported products):

Import operations were mainly carried out by trading, pharmaceutical, processing and agricultural enterprises.

Source: information for the article was taken from open online sources