Europe preps huge defense package in boost to Ukraine: "Never been seen"
Europe preps huge defense package in boost to Ukraine: "Never been seen"
Media reports said as much as $700 billion could be allocated to Europe's defenses, though it was not clear how much of that amount would go to Kyiv.
Summary
European officials are preparing a multibillion-dollar defense package to bolster regional security and support Ukraine, announced by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock at the Munich Security Conference.
The package, potentially valued up to 700 billion euros, will fund military training, arms deliveries, and security guarantees amid concerns over Russian aggression and diminishing U.S. contributions to NATO.
The move follows calls for Europe to boost its own defense spending while U.S.-Russian talks, which exclude Ukraine and Europe, on ending the Ukraine conflict continue.
yeah, that would have been an even better idea, 3 years ago.
Day 1 of the invasion, cut literally all economic ties with Russia and put 3% GDP into defense across the EU.Realistically, the only actual solution to this problem in any long term would probably involve stationing nukes, which nobody really wants to do. A combination of not wanting to risk pissing off putin, because everyone thinks that he's an insane trump-level idiot that will engage in mutual self-destruction over ukraine, combined with the post-soviet destruction and hollowing out of the ukranian economy into private enterprise, an economy which wasn't exactly doing hot before. So it's pretty clear that most everyone doesn't actually give a fuck about ukraine or the ukranian people at all. Everyone's just gonna use this as an opportunity, as with every conflict, to pawn off old military hardware, bury the receiving country in a huge amount of IMF bank loan debt, and scale up their own domestic military production while paying off a bunch of private contractors which are, hmm, suspiciously close to the levers of power inside the real government. Weird how that happens. What a noble sacrifice.
I dunno, the wheels turn.
It's a bit premature to announce this, but yes VonderLeyen has announced the preparation of a defense package of approx. 700 B via this legal fiscal venue. Together with the EU Competitiveness Compass plan at around a minimum of 750 B, they will likely be aimed to reinforce each other. In addition, other parallel plans are being prepared, pending current developments.
added: Context: EU defense is now at 326 B in 2024 (consilium EU). Though Europe also includes UK and other countries ofcourse.
This newly announced extra package is like a minimum extra budget.
Don't sigh before any papers are signed, but...
...while they may get stuck for a while passing a measure of this volume (or someone will need to lure Orban out of the room while others push buttons) - the volume is doable.
For comparison, the NextGenerationEU budget allocation (spent in a dozen ways) to help countries recover from COVID damage) was worth 2 trillion euros, and it was possible to pass.
The actual part? Probably multipronged:
- supercharging EU and Ukrainian arms industries, especially ones that can be expanded fast (drones)
- reducing formalities that need to be followed
- buying the weapons some members have in reserve for a Russian attack (because some do)
- buying the weapons Turkey and Greece have in reserve for each other
- subsequently, raking the global market (including the US) for weapons that come loose for money
- allowing Ukraine to pay really attractive salaries to its own soldiers and foreign soldiers
P.S. And jokingly - buying all the optical fiber available in South-East Asia.
I know a way to increase the support even more than that:
Donate to https://u24.gov.ua/
Package.... and will EU also print new soldiers on its factories? Even properly and sufficiently training the existing ones takes years.