The European Union will have to double the amount of its support to kyiv if the US Congress persists in blocking the aid planned by the White House, according to the Kiel Institute
The European Union (EU) will have to double its military aid to Ukraine to compensate for the failure of the United States, a new envelope for which has been blocked for months in Congress, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy warned on Friday , a German research institute.
“It is highly uncertain whether the United States will send additional military aid in 2024”estimates the institute, which lists the military, financial and humanitarian aid promised and delivered to Ukraine since the Russian invasion, on February 24, 2022. According to its data, as of January 15, the United States sent for 42.2 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine between February 2022 and December 2023, or around 2 billion per month.
The EU, for its part, has promised 49.7 billion euros in military aid since the start of the war, but only 35.2 billion euros has so far been allocated to weapons and equipment accurate.
“Europe will have to at least double its current military aid in the event that there is no additional aid from the United States”warns Christoph Trebesch, who heads the Kiel Institute team responsible for monitoring aid to Ukraine.
“It’s a challenge but ultimately it’s a question of political willadds Mr. Trebesch. The countries of the European Union are among the richest in the world and, to date, they have not spent even 1% of their 2021 GDP to support Ukraine. »
In total, 265.1 billion euros have been promised to Ukraine since February 2022, including 141.3 billion in financial aid, 107.5 billion in military aid and 16.3 billion in humanitarian aid.
The leading donors are the EU and its members (144.1 billion), the United States (67.7) and the United Kingdom (15.7). But, here again, the gap is large between promises and amounts actually allocated, particularly for the European Union, which has to date allocated only 77.2 billion euros in aid. This discrepancy is explained by the fact that the funds released by the EU are generally released for several years.