Study: Western aid to Ukraine weakens

08.12.2023

Figures compiled by German researchers show that international military and financial assistance to Ukraine has cooled significantly in the past few months. Currently, U.S. aid allocations are blocked in Congress, and there are also variables in the EU’s aid package to Ukraine.

(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) Statistics from the Institute for the World Economy (IfW) in Kiel, Germany, show that from August to October this year, the amount of aid commitments to Ukraine reached 2.11 billion euros, only slightly higher than the same period last year. One, which is also the lowest level since before the outbreak of the war of aggression against Ukraine in January 2022.

“Our figures confirm the impression people have had over the past few months: the attitude of aid providers has become hesitant,” Christoph Trebesch, head of a research group tracking aid to Ukraine, told the dpa news agency. He said that Ukraine is increasingly dependent on a few large donors, such as the United States,Germanyand Nordic countries.

Although the United States and the European Union are planning a large-amount aid package for Ukraine, they have been hindered by their respective internal political disputes.On Wednesday, due to obstruction by Republican lawmakers, the United StatesSenate fails to pass $110.5 billion in new funding for Ukraine and Israel。

Trebesh said: “Given the uncertainty about the next step of US aid, Ukraine can only hope that the 50 billion euro aid package planned by the EU can be passed.”

But support for Ukraine within the EU is also less solid. Hungarian Prime Minister Orban is expected to vote against this huge aid at the EU summit in mid-December. The newly elected left-wing populist Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, has announced that the country will stop military aid to Ukraine.

Military aid to Ukraine “too little, too late”?

Roderich Kiesewetter, a defense policy expert of Germany’s CDU, told DW in October: “Support for Ukraine has weakened, (Western) unity has been shaken, and Ukraine is required to accept the ‘designated The calls for peace are growing.”

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejects such peace. He has repeatedly asked the West to provide more powerful weapons such as F16 fighter jets. He also hopes that Germany can provide “Taurus” cruise missiles, but German Chancellor Scholz has so far rejected this request.

According to Kiesewite, this delay is what leads toThe battle is at a stalemateOne of the reasons: “The West itself hindered the counterattack process because the weapons and equipment provided were too little and too late.”

At present, it seems that Moscow is wasting its time, hoping that Trump will win the election next year and the United States will stop aid to Ukraine. Will the EU be able to fill the U.S. vacancy by then? Johannes Varwick, a political scientist at the University of Halle in Germany, believes that “given the large scale involved, this is impossible” because the United States is the most important supplier of weapons to aid Ukraine, and its scale far exceeds that of other countries. .

However, scholars from the Kiel Institute for World Economics pointed out in the latest report that the total weapons and equipment provided by EU institutions and member states to Ukraine have surpassed the United States, becoming the largest aid provider.

Christian Democratic Union politician Kiesewite still believes that Ukraine may achieve military victory with the help of Western military aid, but the corresponding strategy must be to “provide all urgently needed weapons as soon as possible… Delay will only cause more loss of life, It raises the risk of Russia winning and Ukraine disintegrating. In that case, we also have a responsibility.”

(comprehensive report)

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