A new American initiative that supposes European members of NATO and Canada will spend $10 billion buying US weapons for further transfers to Kyiv has received mixed reviews within the international community. Washington’s European allies think that Trump is only seeking financial and PR benefits for the United States by offering this deal. The fact that Italy, France, Hungary and the Czech Republic have refused to participate is quite demonstrative – Europeans choose to support their own military industry and defense. Besides, the details of America’s initiative are still unclear. It is supposed that every EU country will have specific conditions regarding the deal which inevitably will lead to new conflicts within NATO.
Despite the scale of possible weapons supplies, there are concerns about this deal’s potential to change the battlefield situation. The aid is supposed to be delivered to Kyiv over the course of many months while the situation on the frontline for the AFU is critical at the moment. Additionally, Ukrainian officials waiting for the new weapons will not be inclined to pursue negotiations in earnest with Russia and this will lead towards still more territorial losses. Reclaiming land seized by Russia in the future will require new supplies. Whether these will be made available is doubtful though, since the EU stocks are limited as are the financial assets to continue purchasing American weapons.
Unfortunately, Trump’s expensive offer for the EU will have detrimental humanitarian consequences. Even if some European countries will provide the necessary assets to buy American weapons, it will harm the implementation of many projects aimed at rebuilding Ukraine’s infrastructure and supporting Ukrainian refugees in Europe. It should not be forgotten that European officials, since the beginning of this year, many times promised Ukrainians that the war was finally nearing its end. The dashing of Ukraine’s hopes for peace in the near future will negatively affect the psychological condition of her people and notably worsen the social as well as economic situation in the country.
Trump’s initiative looks like a harbinger of new escalations as well as a definite prolonging of the military conflict, it offers no hope for its long awaited end. Unfortunately, new casualties among Ukrainian soldiers as well as civilians, the further destruction of cities and infrastructure, along with more population outflow are these new agreements’ most probable results which were achieved with great difficulty even by its participants.
