Minister of Defense: It is fair that Danes pay the billion bill

It is fair that Danish and European taxpayers should finance the purchase of so-called Patriot air defense systems from the USA to donate them to Ukraine.

Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen (V) said this in Brussels on Wednesday.

According to the minister, it is too early to talk about how much Denmark should contribute to the agreement.

– It is clear that acquiring ten Patriot systems – which is what is being discussed right now – is a very, very large billion-dollar bill that awaits, the minister said.

But he believes it is fair that it is Europe that takes on the responsibility and “contributes to paying that bill.”

– It is about European security, and it is about our security in Denmark.

– If we do not make an extraordinarily large effort to help Ukraine in the dire situation they are in, then we could find ourselves in a much more serious situation, says Troels Lund Poulsen.

Donald Trump said on Monday that the USA will send weapons to the defense alliance NATO to support Ukraine in the war against Russia.

– We will make the best weapons, and they will be sent to NATO, Trump said according to Reuters.

According to the agreement, NATO will buy the weapons from the USA and then distribute them to Ukraine.

The Patriot air defense missiles are considered by Ukraine to be crucial for defending the country against Russian attacks.

According to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Canada have been the first countries to agree to contribute to the agreement.

Since then, the Netherlands has also joined in.

The EU’s foreign affairs chief, Estonia’s Kaja Kallas, has also supported the idea. At the same time, she does not believe that it is Donald Trump who should get all the credit.

– If we pay for these weapons, then it is our support, European support, Kallas said on Tuesday in Brussels.

At the same time, she urged Trump to pay part of the bill himself.

According to Troels Lund Poulsen, the size of the financing will be discussed in the so-called Ramstein group next week. The Ramstein group is an association of 50 countries that wish to support Ukraine’s defense.

According to NATO’s annual report on the defense alliance’s expenditures in 2024, the USA paid 64 percent of NATO’s total defense expenditures.

In comparison, the European countries and Canada accounted for the remaining 36 percent of the expenses.

It has long been one of Trump’s goals to get Europeans to pay a larger share of the expenses.

This is the background for the EU countries agreeing at the NATO summit in The Hague in June to raise defense spending to five percent of gross national product (GNP).