Volodin compared US and EU spending on military assistance to Kyiv

The United States spends significantly less on assistance to Ukraine than the EU countries, while Washington is forcing its allies to finance Kyiv “at the cost of the well-being of its own citizens,” declared Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Volodin.

“Washington has once again shown that the main principle of its policy is to use other countries to achieve its interests. The United States is forcing European states to finance the Kiev regime at the cost of the well-being of their own citizens,” Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel.

The speaker of the State Duma notes that in reality the United States bears less costs than other countries. He compared the level of spending on assistance to Ukraine and the GDP of states: the United States is in 12th place in this indicator (0.37% of GDP).

“This is 5.7 times less than in Poland. Estonia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Malta, Norway, Romania, Cyprus are forcing Washington to spend more,” Volodin wrote.

He also pointed out that European countries are suffering losses due to the sanctions imposed against Russia, which “hit their economies like a boomerang.” In Germany, in particular, support for the energy industry cost 7.2% of GDP, Volodin added.

In March, Washington announced On the allocation of a new $400 million military assistance package to Kiev, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that it would include additional ammunition for the American HIMARS MLRS and 155-mm howitzers, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, sapper equipment, as well as funds for the maintenance of already delivered equipment and training of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

European Union “within weeks” plans to supply Ukraine’s army with €1 billion worth of artillery ammunition from the European Peace Fund, the Financial Times reported this week.

The military operation in Ukraine has been going on since February 24, 2022. After it began, the EU countries, the USA, Great Britain, and others imposed new sanctions on the industry and economy of Russia. In particular, they began to provide military assistance to the armed forces of Ukraine. The Russian authorities have repeatedly criticized the supply of weapons to Kyiv. They also noted that Western countries thus become a party to the conflict.