Ministries of defense of Denmark and Sweden have reached an agreement to allocate additional CV90 infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine, expected to be delivered starting 2024. Although just a letter of intent, the document already expects Denmark to contribute DKK 1.8 million (~USD 263.8 mln).
In turn, Sweden's role in the agreement is to "supervise the procurement within the framework of the agreement concluded between the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) and Ukraine in July this year." What's interesting here is there was no deal between Ukraine and Sweden in July 2023 that mentioned CV90.
Read more: Sweden, Denmark Purchase Additional CV90 Combat Vehicles for Ukraine
The only agreements dated July 12 were the deal between the Ukrainian and Swedish governments on the exchange of confidential information — such as the results of test flights of Ukrainian pilots on JAS 39 Gripen — and also the agreement with the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (Försvarets Materielverk / FMV).
The latter included the following articles. Firstly, it allowed Ukraine to procure Swedish military equipment through FMV. Secondly, Sweden committed to helping Ukraine in establishing the so-called Ukraine Defence Procurement Agency. In the official statement from July 12, FMV noted it "can now proceed with the work on joint defense procurements," and that "the cooperation … will support Ukraine's development in the field of defense materiel in both the short and long term."
A month later, during the meeting of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyi with Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson on August 19th, the two announced the intent to start assembling CV90 combat vehicles in Ukraine. As we can see now, the road to that decision was paved back in July.
Still, the role of Sweden within this framework of partnership regarding the CV90 remains unclear. The December 18th statement describes it as follows:
"This is an important step that we are taking together with Denmark to support Ukraine’s armed forces. We will use our industrial capability to ensure the delivery of newly produced Combat Vehicle 90s to Ukraine," said Swedish Minister for Defence Pål Jonson.
This could mean either of the three options. One is that Sweden will make CV90 infantry fighting vehicles for the Ukrainian Army, while Denmark will pay for it. Considering a CV90 costs about €8.5 mln, or $9 mln, Danish commitment amounts to around 28 or 29 vehicles for the Ukrainian forces.
The second option is that additional IFVs for Ukraine will be withdrawn from the Swedish Armed Forces, similarly to the previous donation of 50 Swedish CV90s announced in January 2023. Denmark, on its part, would finance production of new CV90 vehicles to replenish the stocks of the Swedish Army.
Finally, the third potential scenario is that both countries will allocate money to unfold local production of CV90s in Ukraine. On top of financial resources, it would require deep involvement of the Swedish defense industry. The examples of licensed production of these vehicles in Slovakia and the Czech Republic show these countries only make 40% of the work locally, while the other 60% is up to Sweden.
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