Politico: six European countries did not offer military assistance to Ukraine in July
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The six largest countries in Europe in July did not give Ukraine bilateral promises to provide new military assistance. This happened for the first time since the beginning of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, writes Politico publication, citing data from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
As part of the Ukraine Support Tracker project, the Institute monitors the military, financial and humanitarian assistance provided to Ukraine. According to project manager Christophe Trebesh, since the end of April, there has been a trend towards a decrease in the allocation of military assistance to Ukraine from European countries.
It is specified that in August the countries participating in the donor conference “Copenhagen – Ukraine – 2022” agreed to allocate € 1.5 billion for the purchase of weapons to Kyiv. According to Trebesh, this is “a meager amount” compared to the promises that were made earlier.
He added that the European Union sends much more funds to overcome the consequences of the pandemic than to support Ukraine. Thus, the European Economic Recovery Fund (RRF) has €800 billion at its disposal. The total assistance allocated to Ukraine by European countries is only a small part of this amount, Trebesh said. “I’d say that’s surprisingly low given what’s at stake,” he said.
The Russian authorities have repeatedly criticized military assistance to Ukraine from Western countries. Earlier, Russia sent a note of protest to all countries, including the United States, over the supply of weapons to Ukraine. Nevertheless, in early August, Mars II from Germany arrived in Ukraine. Also, the United States announced that they would allocate a new military assistance package to Ukraine, which is estimated at $ 1 billion. It, among other things, included ammunition for the HIMARS MLRS and NASAMS air defense.
At the same time, the West increasingly began to doubt the imminent victory of Ukraine. So, at the end of June, CNN reported that the White House was “losing confidence” that Ukraine would be able to return the territories lost since the beginning of the Russian military operation. By words Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, some Western countries are also waiting for the fall of Kyiv in the hope that then “the problem will disappear by itself.”
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