Eirik Kristoffersen, Norway Defense Chief

Last week, Norway allocated almost EUR 270 million for another package of military aid to Ukraine, which will include air defense and F-16 assets, once again demonstrating solidarity and determination in supporting the Ukrainian Defense Forces, and for 2026, Norway pledged almost $8.5 billion in further support. In addition, the country has joined the PURL initiative, paying for American weapons, critical for saving lives and protecting infrastructure. Meanwhile, Norwegian instructors continue to train Ukrainian military in several European countries.

Ukrinform spoke with General Eirik Kristoffersen, Norway’s Chief of Defense. In the military vertical, he holds the highest position second only to the King of Norway, reporting directly to the country's Minister of Defense. He is the government's chief advisor on military affairs, also representing the country in the NATO Military Committee.

During the conversation, the general spoke about the importance of supporting Ukraine for the security of the entire continent, avenues of assistance to Ukraine’s Defense Forces, useful lessons Norway learned from Ukraine's efforts to repel Russian military aggression, frank conversations with the public to ensure resilience and defense readiness, as well as his vision of Russia's goals.

US ADAPTED PURL PACKAGES UPON NORWAY’S REQUEST

- Norway’s overall funding for PURL support packages, as per your foreign minister Espen Barth Eide, now amounts to nearly 835 million and your defense minister Tore O. Sandvik said strengthening Ukraine’s combat capacity enhances the security of the entire European continent. In your position, what is your take on the significance of PURL?

- PURL is a source for support to Ukraine that we encourage both our political leaders but also the rest of Europe to utilize. But PURL is just a part of the support they are giving from Norway. So, ever since February 2022 we’ve been working on donations from our own stocks, working with Norwegian industry in the beginning, and now more and more with Ukrainian industry, but also on the training and the exercises they conduct together with Ukraine, outside Ukraine, to support the buildup of Ukrainian forces. We have had multiple lines of effort to make sure that Ukraine receives the support it needs and deserves. So PURL is one of the sources.

From my point of view, it's working. It's based on the Ukrainian needs. We’ve been able to pay for the packages from the United States, so I'm happy with that. I've also spoken with American authorities about the content of the PURL packages, and they have tailored them in accordance with what General Syrskyi has asked me for and what we haven’t been able to provide ourselves. And therefore PURL packages have been an addition to that.

SUPPORTING UKRAINE IS A PRIORITY FOR EUROPEAN SECURITY

- As the geopolitical and security environment is shifting in Europe, as is the U.S. national security strategy focus, what are the main challenges Norway sees as facing European allies and Europe in general and do you believe Europe is ready to tackle them?

- So, first of all, the support for Ukraine is the main priority for European security, because the war in Ukraine also determines the future for Europe. I see that political leaders across the European continent are responding the same way, so that gives me comfort and trust. But the war in Ukraine is the main priority now. Then, the next thing is, of course, to, to meet the requirements from NATO in accordance with the goals established at the Washington Summit, where every nation should spend 3.5 percent of their GDP on their defense forces and 1.5 percent on resilience. The good thing about this is It also aligns with the lessons learned from the war in Ukraine. It's not only about the military capabilities. It's also about the society's total resilience.

If Europe does what we are said we are supposed to do, I'm confident that Europe also will be stronger in the framework of NATO. For me, the framework of NATO is the most important thing because there is no other framework where you have the command and control systems, infrastructure, and the processes you need to fight a a larger scale war than NATO. So to deter Russia means for Europe to invest more in NATO.

RUTTE IS RIGHT, NATO HAS BECOME STRONGER

- Do you believe NATO is now stronger than ever as Secretary General Mark Rutte said? Is Europe’s eastern flank safe today – and tomorrow?

- So, what I've seen in this job of the chief of defense in Norway, where I’ve been for five and a half years, is significant development of NATO. First of all, it’s that we stand together in our support to Ukraine is very important. It shows the strength of NATO and the commitment to each other. Also the meetings we have had with the partners, to include Ukraine, also encourage my believing that together we can deter any aggressor.

When I was in Brussels in January, 32 NATO nations and 35 partner nations were there. Together, it’s 67 nations with strong economy and more aligned values than you see from authoritarian regimes. That's the one thing that, I think, resonates with the idea that NATO is now stronger. Secondly, in my part of Europe, it’s that Finland and Sweden have joined NATO. Finland and Sweden bring net security for NATO and for Norway. They are very capable members. And they also very capable military that will add more security for not only Northern Europe, but for all of Europe.

And the last thing is, of course, is that we have seen increased defense spending and funding. So, I think that we all share the same concern that we have to actually take the lessons learned from Ukraine and build the new defense for tomorrow, based on those lessons learned, to be even stronger to deter Russia. So, I agree with the Secretary General that NATO is stronger and more prepared in 2025 and the beginning of 2026 than we were back in 2020 when I took over.

EU AND NATO ARE ALIGNED IN STRENGTHENING DEFENSES

- EU is now making huge efforts to build up defenses by boosting production, improving military corridors, working on research and innovation, and generally waking up. Some EU officials call for a more structured, institutionalized organization of defense. Do you feel that this work is well-coordinated and aligned with the NATO goals and targets in terms of making European allies stronger? Obviously, Norway is not a member of the EU, but from the NATO perspective, do you feel the EU is on the right track?

- As you said, Norway is not a member of the European Union but we are very much participating in the European defense initiatives and also in the European economic cooperation, based on our agreements with the European Union. I think we can do more when it comes to aligning our defense industries, when it comes to standardization, and also when it comes to other requirements to facilitate more innovation in the industry. And that's why we have been talking more about what effects we want to achieve in the future instead of talking about what sort of platforms should be replaced by a newer version of those platforms.

So, on the innovation side, on the standardization side, we are moving in the right direction, but it's still going slow. So, the concern for all my partners, my fellow chiefs of defense across Europe is that we have a lot of money now because of increased defense spending, but industry has to deliver even faster both to meet the demands of Ukraine but also to replace everything that we have donated to Ukraine, and then finally to facilitate increased defense spending in Europe.

So it's more than one problem that needs to be solved. It's actually at least three requirements that need to be met by the defense industry. But what I've seen, and I've been part of some EU chiefs of defense meetings, is that they are much more aligned with NATO, that the EU is not competing with NATO, that we are aligning the efforts. And EU has a special role in Europe to facilitate for both industrial production and, as you said, military mobility across borders - all the things we have seen we need to fix, including in our support to Ukraine. So, there's still a lot of work to be done, but we're on the right track.

NORWAY FOCUSED ON MORE TRAINING OF UKRAINIAN RECRUITS IN POLAND

- This fall, Norway launched work to train Ukrainian soldiers on Polish soil, at Camp Jomsborg, to help them better defend themselves from Russian attacks. In fact, this is the biggest Norwegian military camp deployed abroad. Could you tell us more about this effort?

- It’s a deliberate effort from Norway to train Ukrainians closer to Ukraine. We are training them in a number of place, including in Norway, Lithuania, the UK, Germany, Romania, and other places as well. So, we are trying now to consolidate more hours of the training in Poland, and that's why we also have established the logistical hub in Poland. And the reason is that we are still not prepared, or facilitated, to train inside Ukraine. But in the meantime, we are training Ukrainians as close to Ukraine as possible.

So, the training in Poland marks the start of the Nordic-Baltic-Polish cooperation on building capabilities for the Ukrainian Army. But I see the possibility now to move training and facilitate it better in Poland than we do elsewhere. We are consolidating our training there, including to be able to move it into Ukraine as soon as the environment allows us to do that.

INTEL, BATTLEFIELD AWARENESS, DRONES – LESSONS LEARNED FROM UKRAINE

- Obviously, NATO is learning a lot from the ongoing war in Ukraine, particularly through JATEC. What would you call the most valuable lessons in terms of enhancing Norway’s defense preparedness, battlefield tactics, and perhaps even amending some of the existing protocols that might not work in a potential contingency with Russia?

- There are so many lessons learned from Ukraine from the very tactical level to the strategic level. So, if I should take three or four of them, first is the need to have a shared intelligence picture. We need to invest more in our surveillance and in our shared picture across nations in Europe to make sure that we have the same understanding of Russia.

If you go back to the buildup Russian forces back in the fall of 2021, we all received all that information, but not necessarily shared the same understanding of what this means. So Norway increased its readiness in December 2021 because we understood that we need to do something if there is a Russian attack on Ukraine again. So to build on that national intelligence, to make sure that we have enough resources to have a good picture of the situation, it’s very important that we need to do it together with other European and NATO allies.

Second is the ability to mobilize the society and the defense forces. Because that's something that really has impressed me in the war in Ukraine – it’s Ukraine's ability to not only mobilize their defense forces, but also the whole society. Norway used to have that concept during the Cold War. We still have it, but we need to refine it for the future, based on the lessons learned from Ukraine.

Because it's not only about military resilience, it's also about the industrial resilience. It's about the ability to regenerate both equipment and personnel, and those lessons learned are very valuable for all European nations.

The last thing is the use of unmanned or autonomous systems. We need to invest more in more unmanned systems, like drones. And right now, the Ukrainian industry is actually leading in this task, so we need to learn from the Ukrainian industry the ability to innovate and develop new equipment based on the needs from the front line.

So there is a lot of lessons learned when it comes to the use of the new platforms and looking at effects instead of the old platforms that will have lower effect per dollar spent than unmanned systems.

And the final thing I would say is something that I've seen developing very fast in Ukraine. That’s the digital backbone of the fight – how you make sure that you connect the sensors, effectors, decision-makers together, so we can speed up the process of taking decisions and have an effect on the battleground. So we're going through a huge digital transformation in Norway over the next years, and we’re basing that transformation including on lessons learned from Ukraine.

OPEN DEBATE ON THREATS CONTRIBUTES TO BETTER PUBLIC PREPAREDNESS

- Norway is known as the first NATO ally to introduce gender-neutral conscription. So many young Norwegians acquire basic skills in military training. Obviously, those being conscripted learn to serve their country up in arms. But how do average Norwegians perceive the threat of a war hitting NATO soil? Is there public debate going on about the potential perspectives?

- Norway is very open when it comes to talking about our military and the situation in the world around us. There are open intelligence assessments coming out every year about the treats we are facing – Russia being one of them, as well as terrorism and threats under the threshold of the war, like cyberattacks and other threats we could face.

So this openness sparks the debate in Norway. We see that the open approach from our military, our police, our intelligence services also brings confidence in the people, but also, of course, they get worried because the world is as it is right now. It's an unsecure and unstable world around us at the moment.

We are measuring how many people actually want to fight for their country and we are seeing that we have high numbers in Norway – nine out of 10 say they are willing. So this shows very high numbers, solid support for larger defense spending.

And we are also measuring the attitude to supporting Ukraine. My experience is that there is a lot of support in Norway both for increased defense spending and support of Ukraine because of the debate that we’re having and also our openness.

When it comes to the gender perspective, I've seen in Ukraine as well how the Ukrainian Armed Forces have developed not only when it comes to gender, but also when it comes to diversity in the time of war. It just shows the importance of a diverse force, having opportunities for everybody in society to participate in the fight based on their qualifications and skills. So, we are also learning from Ukraine when it comes to including the gender perspective in the fight. And we have seen a lot of lessons learned that we have also been including in our defense forces.

In Norway, across all parties in parliament, they all stand behind the support of Ukraine, and they also stand behind the increase in defense spending and the White Paper that we have for the long term development of our Armed Forces. So, it shows that in difficult times, our politicians, but also our people, fight together and stand behind what we are doing.

I’m happy with that because it gives me the mandate I need to develop our defense forces, and also because it feels very meaningful to do this when you know that you have all that support in the back.

PUTIN’S GOALS HAVE NOT CHANGED

- You’ve been in this position for over 5 years, and you saw how Russian aggression evolved. What do you think is Russia’s ultimate goal? Looking beyond the fog of the ongoing war, the confusion Russia creates in the peace talks by setting maximalist goals and dismissing the idea of any concessions on its part, do you think Russia is ready for peace?

- I don't think that Putin's goals have changed since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022: it’s more of Ukraine to be part of Russia, to have a Russian-friendly regime in Kyiv, and he wants to stop any sort of alignment of Ukraine with Western security parties.

So, if you look at the situation right now, he hasn't achieved his goals, which means that Ukraine is still holding off from Russian attacks, and President Zelensky is still in position, Ukraine is supportive of their president, and Finland and Sweden have joined NATO. So NATO has been enlarged compared to February 2022.

So I don't think his goals have changed at all. Even facing the reality on the battlefield, he will continue to pursue his goals. And they will do it in different ways. So, right now, at the end of 2025, the most important thing we do is support Ukraine in the current fight. Because I don't see any signs of Russia having changed their ambitions. And then, of course, we all want peace, but it has to be on Ukraine’s terms, otherwise it's not a lasting peace.

- Former NATO chief and Norway’s current finance minister Jens Stoltenberg in his book criticized NATO for insufficient support to Ukraine during 2023-24. Do you share this opinon?

- We need to do more to support Ukraine, definitely, and I've been arguing for that for years: let's do everything we can to support Ukraine because this fight is about much more than Ukraine, it's of course very important that we support Ukraine – for Ukraine – but it's also about the future of Europe, because if Russia attacks Ukraine and comes out with some sort of victory, then they have shown that using force is an option also in 2025, and we don't want that. So the best deterrence for future conflicts is to continue to support Ukraine.

Ievgen Matiushenko, Brussels

Photo credit: Facebook/Eirik Kristoffersen