On Feb. 17th, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced that Denmark will be sending its entire inventory of artillery to Ukraine. Days later, Czech President Petr Pavel announced a new initiative to supply Ukraine with 800,000 much-needed artillery shells by combining an increase in production with a new initiative to source munitions from outside the European Union. Belgium and the Netherlands have both extended funding for this initiative.
As the United States falters on supplying Ukraine much-needed ammunition and equipment, European NATO members have reaffirmed their commitments to Ukrainian victory.
Let there be no misunderstanding: the military aid provided to Ukraine by the United States has played an undeniable role in allowing Kyiv to grapple with Russia’s larger military. There is no individual country or collection of countries that can match the volume and strategic effectiveness of the United States’ security assistance to Ukraine.
However, with the absence of American support due to the ongoing obstruction campaign seen in congress, countries throughout Europe have reaffirmed many of their original commitments to providing Ukraine with military aid. Even with its reputation for making decisions at a glacial pace the European Union has managed to pass a $54 billion aid package for Ukraine in early February.
These developments should be seen as a valuable opportunity for further cooperation between the United States and our European allies. The combination of European capital and American manufacturing and production may be enough to jump-start the delivery of military equipment to Ukraine. Additionally, the recent initiatives from the governments of Denmark and the Czech Republic should be a reminder to Trump and the MAGA base that by no means is Europe “not pulling its weight”.
More Than 160 Delegations Invited to Ukraine Peace Talks in Switzerland
In response to Trump’s sabotage of Ukraine aid, the other half of the Transatlantic Alliance has shown itself to be more than capable of picking up the slack. Rather than abandoning our allies and our alliances, it’s time that the United States delivers on its promises and works with NATO to bring Ukraine to victory.
Reprinted from the author’s blog Why it Matters. See the original here.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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Comments (5)
@Troll 'Jack' posing as the "great white north".
You forgot to include in your post below your MRGA obligatory insults to the author and Kyivpost for the excellent job they are doing that the rest of Ukraine supporters thank them for.
Also, if I could just interject a message for our EU & UK readers; Canadians are quite receptive to strengthening our mutual bonds with that Continent. We pretty much share the same social and environmental values, which puts us quite far removed from that of the hate spewing putintrump cult that seems to have gained political traction in the USA.
Also with strong EU heritage, we tend to quite quickly jump in to help that continent in its national security matters, often years before the USA does (WWII, WWII).
We already have our CETA free trade agreement. How about an invite to compete in Eurovision as well....that looks like great fun!
Cheers,
Canada is one of the NATO laggards who have not pulled their weight in that organization. Canada has a longer coastline than any other country and is the second largest by land mass after Russia.
It is high time for Canada to double its defence budget and withdraw from NATO. We should partner with the Americans to defend the North American continent against Russia and China. Europe, fight your endless wars by yourself.
@the great white north, Hi troll 'jack".
I would love to see my country spend more on military. I write leadership frequently on this. Hard to get buy in though since:
1. Canada has never started a war and been attacked only once ( by the USA technically when British owned in 1812). Albeit often first to sign up for peacekeeping missions, our leadership then gimp's soldiers right to shoot back.
2. Every time it gains traction in a defence manufacturing niche, competing USA lobby interests shut us down. Putinrump tried to put a nail in our one remaining airline manufacturer with his terms 300% tariff on CDN planes sold into the USA.
3. Thus ramping up weapons supply generally requires paying marked up USA prices. After pre-paying, by the time USA delivers, the new version is out and we have essentially paid full price for what became their old stock.
4. Canada continues to pay its full share of dues to NATO, and remains in monetary terms the NATO's 6th largest contributor.
5. Counting contributions to Ukraine, Canada exceeded the 2% GDP NATO military expenditure recommendation the last 2 years. For Ukraine, our %GDP contribution matches the USAs, albeit the later has not yet delivered all the weapons pre-paid to them.
6. It already has plans to continue this % GDP expenditure level post war.
Still I agree we should spend more on our defence sector.
@John, I know who Jack is. I’m not Jack and I am not a Russian troll. I am a Canadian with a sincere point of view.
@Imokru2, I assumed it was Jack as I thought from previous postings you were aware of these stats:
As per the Kiel Institute's Ukraine Aid tracker, past USA aid committed to Ukraine has been monetarily significant representing: $42.2 in military; $24 in finance and 1.45 billion in humanitarian aid. Germany's contribution is the next highest totalling $40.8 billion. The Biden admin was unable to contribute towards this particular shell package, due to the ongoing MRGA stalling in the US House.
With a contribution of 0.32% of its GDP, the USA aid to Ukraine as of January 15, 2024 ranked 32nd. Estonia was the top % GDP contributor at 4.5%, followed by Poland at 4% of its GDP. The UK was at 0.57% of its GDP at that date but has since increased further.
As of January 15th, $185 billion had been contributed by allies other than the USA as of that date. While further USA aid is currently frozen, other nations have stepped up support since that date including EU institution's (MFB, EIB) recent sizeable additional $50 billion commitment.
Most allies buy their Ukraine donated weapons from other larger nations.
Worth noting is that US weapons sales to Ukraine's other allies in 2023 rose 56% from 2022 to reach $238 billion.
This is as it should be. It is long passed due that European states expend the money necessary to defend themselves. It has always been the Americans who were expected to pony up the money. No more.
@troll jack posing as Imokru2,
Not polite to put words in the mouth of those you impersonate troll 'jack'.
Didn't your parents teach you better manners?
Sorry, that was an assumption you had two parents.....perhaps russian scientists have made advances in parthenogenesis amongst putin's inner circle.
Putin has again threatened nuclear war if NATO puts troops into Ukraine.
A nuclear first strike is NOT a proportionate response to soldiers arriving on a battlefield to defend innocents against illegal invasion.
A 'superpower' such as Russia is expected to fight like with like, to use conventional forces to repel NATO troops. Putin has been warned by China and India not to escalate to WW3.
The point is, be careful what you wish for Mr. Putin. If Trump is elected and US support for Ukraine is dropped that will not end the war as Trump suggests. It will force a Europe with nothing to lose to put its best troops into Ukraine to bring a swift end to the occupation as we would no longer have the US funds for a prolonged engagement.
When we put troops in, we support them with air superiority, satellite surveillance and everything else. I cannot wait to see Putin swinging from a lampost in red square strung up by his own friends for the ass kicking and national humiliation he has brought them.
It would be hard for a sane person not to agree with each point the author has made here. Thus we can expect the MRGA trolls to make their typical personal attacks on this author shortly.
However the article is simply a factual recap of where we are at present. Traditionally glacially slow bureaucratic EU has actually risen to the challenge and now far outstrips other allied aid to Ukraine. The USA falters in its aid, as it's leadership apparently either has no will or means, to sideline treasonist putinrump and his stalling MRGA minions in the US House (my words....not the authors). This must be past embarrassing for sane Americans that worry about the growing threat of foreign autocracies plotting USA decline.
If the most significant military and economic ally to the USA fails to single handedly stop the spreading putin cancer, who remains to help the USA in its future battles? Can it single handedly manage an victorious malfeasant putin regime allied with oppressive autocratic China, Iran and North Korea regimes?
Will the USA be stronger in putintrumps proposed walled isolation (assuming the wall funds are not again funnelled off by putinrump aligned fraudsters...which he subsequently pardoned).
Who really wins in that scenario?
@John,
You are right John, America may need friends in Europe one day.
We cannot do anything about it if they choose to leave us to fight Russia alone, but we will remember their decision for a long time.