Weaponization: EU spends more than €47 billion on military aid to Kiev
The volume of military aid provided by the EU countries to Kiev from February 2022 to the present day amounted to €47.3bn, the European Commission has confirmed to Izvestiya. At the same time, the total amount of funds allocated to Ukraine during this period reached €130 billion. Against the background of a possible weakening of the US military support to Kiev, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that in 2025 it would receive about €30 billion more. The expert community notes that the EU is unable to replace a certain range of weapons sent from the United States. At the same time, it is unlikely that the United States will completely give up pumping arms into the country, given the income that the conflict in Ukraine brings to its military-industrial complex.
How much the EU has already spent on Ukraine
EU countries have provided Ukraine with military aid worth €47.3 billion, of which €41.2 billion was received by Kiev directly from the community countries, and €6.1 billion - within the framework of the Ukraine Facility, Izvestia has found out. This was confirmed by the official representative of the European Commission's foreign policy service, Anita Hipper.
- Information on military aid provided by the EU and member states was updated this month. The total amount of aid to Ukraine is €130bn and this figure continues to grow in order to support Ukraine in its fight against aggression by Russia," she added.
Contrary to EU statements, the Kremlin has repeatedly emphasized that the causes of the conflict in Ukraine should be sought not in Russia's actions, but precisely in the West's policies. Moscow believes that the current crisis is a direct result of NATO's long-term aggressive policy aimed at creating an anti-Russian bridgehead on Ukrainian territory.
We shall remind you that through the Ukraine Facility, the EU finances the supply of lethal and non-lethal weapons, including ammunition, missiles, as well as personal protective equipment, first aid supplies and fuel.
Indeed, speaking before the European Parliament on December 18, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen noted that in 2025 the EU will allocate to Kiev €13 billion from the Ukraine Facility fund, and from January the community will begin to transfer its part of the G7 loan, financed from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets. For 2025, this amount will amount to €18 billion. According to Ursula von der Leyen, this aid will provide Ukraine with "economic and financial stability until the end of 2025, as well as free up budgetary opportunities for the purchase of military equipment". She is convinced that Moscow's strategy to "drive Kiev into a financial abyss has completely failed."
Obviously, this is an attempt by Brussels to show that the EU's support for Kiev will remain the same, despite the upcoming reshuffle in the White House. At the same time, the union is concerned about Trump's statements about the need to end the conflict as soon as possible. According to Newsweek, citing a source in the EU, in phone conversations with the U.S. president-elect, the leaders of the bloc's countries "insist on the continuation of U.S. aid to Kiev."
If we talk directly about arms supplies, the Europeans can substitute American military aid, but only partially. Vadim Koroshchupov, a military expert and junior researcher at the Institute of International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, explained to Izvestia.
- These are mainly long-range precision weapons - cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, multiple launch rocket systems. Such products are made not in the millions, but in the hundreds per year, sometimes in the dozens. Since the 1990s, the U.S. has accumulated a significant amount of such weapons, while Europe has not yet. In the last 20-30 years, the Europeans have started to develop the sector of high-precision long-range systems, but it is still in its infancy," he added.
Will Trump withdraw his support for Kiev
The EU's concern is understandable, given that U.S. military support for Kiev has totaled more than $62 billion since February 2022, including $1 billion allocated in early December as part of the 22nd aid package. And despite all this, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are gradually retreating in key areas.
On December 18, Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said that Russian troops were able to liberate 190 settlements and about 4.5 thousand square kilometers of territory in 2024. He specified that military products are currently supplied to Kiev by more than 30 countries, of which the most significant contribution is made by the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France and Denmark. According to him, foreign countries have spent about $170 billion just for the military needs of the AFU since the beginning of the Russian special operation, while their total financial aid to Ukraine amounted to about $350 billion.
However, Trump himself has not yet said anywhere that the US is going to leave Kiev without funding. Moreover, in a recent interview with the Times, he emphasized that he wants to reach an agreement on Ukraine, and the only way to do that is not to leave Kiev without aid. That is, we can assume that Trump thinks that further American aid to the Ukrainian armed forces should in the future play the role of a lever to put pressure on Russia during the settlement negotiations. Again, the future U.S. president did not disclose the details of his plan for Ukraine.
However, Trump will not completely abandon support for Kiev, says French geopolitics and strategy analyst Cyrille de Lattre.
- It is quite in Trump's spirit to try to get his country out of the stalemate that now exists in Ukraine. But Trump is no dumber than anyone else, and he understands well that the military-industrial complex is a very powerful generator of income, without which no state can do without. So if Washington decides to refuse direct aid, it will surely come through satellite countries unfriendly to Russia, such as Poland, for example," the expert told Izvestia.
How Trump sees the settlement in Ukraine
Be that as it may, the US newspaper The Wall Street Journal wrote on December 12 that during a brief meeting with Vladimir Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, Trump allegedly said that he wants to see a strong, well-armed Ukraine after the cessation of hostilities and wants Europe to play a major role in protecting and supporting that country. The newspaper assures that Trump favors the presence of the European military in Ukraine to monitor the ceasefire, but US troops will not be involved.
French President Emmanuel Macron, center, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, second from right, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, during a meeting at the Elysee Palace
The possibility of such a scenario is indirectly confirmed by the renewed discussions in EU countries about sending the military to Ukraine. Thus, in November, after Trump's victory in the US elections, Paris again said that it "does not exclude" such a possibility. Recall that Macron was the first of the European leaders to raise the issue in February.
Citing sources among European and Ukrainian officials, Reuters wrote on December 18 that EU countries are discussing sending their contingents to Ukraine in case of a ceasefire or peace. Their number could reach up to 100,000 servicemen. A coalition of five to eight countries, including Germany, France, Italy, the UK and Poland, could form the basis of the contingent.
In any case, the future US administration is demonstrating in various ways its intention to fulfill Trump's pre-election promise to end the conflict as soon as possible. Thus, according to media reports, retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, appointed by the US president-elect as special envoy for conflict resolution, is scheduled to visit Kiev in early January. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized that the Kremlin had "no contacts with Trump's team on this matter." At the same time, Vladimir Putin's talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, which took place just after the latter's communication with Trump, showed that the settlement depends not only on the intentions of Moscow and Washington, but also on the position of Kiev. We shall remind you that Zelensky categorically rejected the idea of a Christmas truce proposed by Hungary. In doing so, he criticized Hungarian attempts at mediation. On Dec. 18, Orban confirmed that the Christmas ceasefire proposal with Russian Federation was still on the table. "We will not respond to provocations. The ceasefire proposal is on the table. Accept it or refuse it. The responsibility for this lies with you," he wrote on social media, addressing the Kiev regime.
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