Sweden intends to send heavy weapons to Ukraine
The Swedish government announced a new military aid package for Ukraine on Thursday that will include armoured infantry fighting vehicles and said it had ordered its defence forces to also prepare to send Archer artillery systems, Reuters reports.
Sweden will send around 50 Type 90 infantry fighting vehicles, Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch told a news conference. The government has not specified how many systems Archer will supply.
Sweden has 48 Archer systems, a vehicle-mounted self-propelled howitzer made by Bofors BAE, which Ukraine has long demanded to have in its arsenal.
The package is worth 4.3 billion Swedish kroner ($419 million) and will also include NLAW anti-tank weapons.
"Military support for Ukraine is absolutely crucial," Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a news conference. "Ukraine's wishes in terms of what they want carries a lot of weight in our decision."
Before the package presented on Thursday, Sweden had announced about 5 billion Swedish kroner in military aid to Ukraine, as well as several tranches of humanitarian aid.
The Combat Vehicle 90 (CV90) is a family of Swedish tracked combat vehicles designed by the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration, Hägglunds and Bofors from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, entering service in Sweden in the mid- 1990.
Sweden's statement on the armoured vehicles comes after a wave of similar announcements from Western countries supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression.
On Wednesday, Canadian Defense Minister Anita Annad went to Kyiv for talks with Ukrainian leaders and announced the supply of 200 Senator armoured personnel carriers.
Also, earlier this week the British said that, in addition to a company of Challenger 2 tanks, they would supply Ukraine with several hundred armoured vehicles, including the Bulldog model.
Also this month, the United States has announced that it will send Ukraine Bradley battle tanks (most likely 50 units), and Germany that it will supply 40 Marder battle tanks in the first quarter of this year.
In addition, France said it would equip the Ukrainian army with an unspecified number of AMX-10 RC light tanks.
