During negotiations between Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, further strengthening of Ukrainian air defense was discussed, the ministers said at a joint press conference on Monday.

"The key topic of the negotiations, I will be honest, was air defense systems. Norwegian NASAMS have proven themselves extremely positively in Ukraine, and we are grateful that the Norwegian government is making efforts to ensure that Ukraine has more such systems, but the Norwegian government also has the tools and capabilities to help we need to get Patriot systems from other countries, and we also discussed this topic in depth today," Kuleba said.

Eide, in turn, said Norway is aware of the complexity of the situation in Ukraine, and that air defense is one of the leading topics.

He also said NASAMS has already been mentioned, and Norway is also increasing the production of these advanced rockets, but they are produced not only in Norway, there is a conglomerate of countries that produce them. He said they are working on this and Mr. Kuleba also said that this is not about other countries, how can Norway provide more Patriots, because air defense is crucial in order to protect Ukraine's economy, energy infrastructure, population, and in order to maintain morale, of course, to win only with air defense means not enough, but it is a very important component, he said.

Kuleba said appropriate steps to provide Ukraine with additional air defense systems will be taken in the near future.

"I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. Minister for his sincere dedication to ensuring that what we talked about today regarding the provision of more air defense assets to Ukraine is carried out. I have no doubt that Norway is doing everything it can from what I heard today. This is all not happens in one day. However, we both have a common understanding that new air defense batteries must be delivered as soon as possible and we have already identified concrete steps that Norway will take, even today, as the minister told me, to move in this direction," Kuleba said.