Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is more confident than ever that time is on his side in Ukraine and believes the Western world ultimately lacks the political will to oppose him, writes Ivan Verstyuk.
For much of the war America has been Ukraine’s most generous backer. But aid from the EU, including long-term pledges, has grown to almost double America’s sum, at €131.9bn since January 2022 compared with €69.5bn. Add non-EU European countries like Britain and Norway, and the gap grows yet wider.
Sure, you need more than that to win a war. But you also really do need firepower. And the EU overall has not provided a GDP-analogous quantity of military hardware to Ukraine when compared to the US, and that’s chiefly because the EU has - as a matter of policy since the collapse of the USSR - let their overall military-industrial capacity atrophy to a fairly significant degree.
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/09/11/europe-not-america-is-now-ukraines-largest-backer
America might be providing most of the firepower, but you need more than that to win a war.
Sure, you need more than that to win a war. But you also really do need firepower. And the EU overall has not provided a GDP-analogous quantity of military hardware to Ukraine when compared to the US, and that’s chiefly because the EU has - as a matter of policy since the collapse of the USSR - let their overall military-industrial capacity atrophy to a fairly significant degree.
This I can agree with