Suppose the US and EU had never given Ukraine one dime? What would be the result? Better or worse.
Look at this through the lens of Vietnam. We shipped almost 3 million young men to fight that pointless war which almost bankrupted this nation. After eight brutal years, we managed to ramp up the "action" to the point where over 3 million Vietnameese were killed and we left with our tail between our legs and North Vietnam firmly in control, or as Nixon put it "peace with honor". The US made things 100 times worse for our enemies and our allies.
Is the Ukraine any different? Absolutely not. Putin will win, control Donbas (& it's mineral, energy assets) and we'll have enabled (w NATO) an escalation that has killed 500,000 Ukrainian troops, injured many more and displaced over 8 million citizen from their homes.
Or as Henery Kissinger famous said after being one of the cheif architects of the Vietnam war "being an enemy of the US is dangerous, being our friend is lethal'.
Visualizing $233B in Ukraine
November 12, 2023
By Marcus Lu, Visual Capitalist
Ukraine has received over $230 billion in aid since the Russian invasion in 2022.
EU institutions and the U.S. together account for almost 70% of the total aid.
This graphic uses data from the Ukraine Support Tracker to visualize the top 10 donors to Ukraine between Jan 24, 2022, and July 31, 2023.
European Union is the Biggest Donor
Military aid to Ukraine includes weapons, equipment, and items explicitly donated to the Ukrainian army.
The graphic also illustrates humanitarian aid to assist civilians and financial aid like grants, loans, and guarantees made to the Ukrainian government. It does not include private donations, support for refugees outside of Ukraine, or assistance from international organizations.
As of July 2023, the European Union institutions have been the biggest donor, sending over $90 billion through various mechanisms such as loans or grants, and military assistance through its European Peace Facility fund.
Unlike the United States, which has the largest share of aid in military support, the EU has focused on financial aid.
EU aid includes $3.3 billion for lethal equipment and an additional $2.1 billion to supply Ukraine with one million rounds of ammunition.
The bloc is considering providing up to $53 billion in financial assistance to Ukraine (in loans and grants) for the 2023-2027 period, including using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s reconstruction.
While not captured in this dataset, Denmark and the Netherlands announced in August 2023 that they would donate up to 61 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
U.S. Support
After the European Union, the United States is the biggest donor, with over $70 billion.
The country has already disbursed 96% of the funds allocated to Ukraine since the start of the war, and this has sparked a political controversy.
While the Biden administration strongly defends a $106 billion Emergency National Security Supplemental Request to help Ukraine and Israel, Republican senators oppose the current budget, which contains an additional $60 billion in aid for Ukraine.