What state is the Ukrainian military in after its failed counter-offensive? Ask your questions to our reporter who just returned from Ukraine
Two years after the start of the large-scale war, the dynamics of Western support for Kiev is losing momentum: newly committed aid in the period from August 2023 to January 2024 is lower than in the same period of the previous year. The latest report from the Kill Institute was published in February 2024. And this trend may continue, the American Senate is struggling to pass aid, and the European Union (EU) had every difficulty in aid of 50 billion adopted on 1.er February 2024, due to the Hungarian blockade. Please note, these two aid packages have not yet been taken into account in the latest assessment by the Kiel Institute, which ends in January 2024.
Data from the German Institute shows that the number of donors is decreasing and is concentrated around several countries: the United States, Germany, countries of Northern and Eastern Europe, which promise both high financial support and advanced weapons. In total, since February 2022, countries that support Kyiv have committed at least 276 billion euros at the military, financial or humanitarian level.
In absolute terms, the richest countries are the most liberal. The United States is by far the leading donor, with more than 75 billion euros in aid announced, including 46.3 billion in military aid. European Union countries announced bilateral assistance (64.86 billion euros) and joint assistance from European Union funds (93.25 billion euros) for a total of 158.1 billion euros.
When we combine these contributions with the gross domestic product (GDP) of each donor country, the rankings change. The United States dropped to twentieth place (0.32% of its GDP), behind Ukraine’s neighbors or former friendly Soviet republics. Estonia leads in aid relative to GDP with 3.55%, followed by Denmark (2.41%) and Norway (1.72%). The rest of the top 5 is completed by Lithuania (1.54%) and Latvia (1.15%). The three Baltic states, all of which share borders with Russia or its ally Belarus, have been among the most generous donors since the beginning of the conflict.
Ranking as a percentage of GDP, France ranks twenty-seventh with a commitment of 0.07% of its GDP, behind Greece (0.09%). Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, aid provided by Paris has steadily declined – France was twenty-fourth in April 2023 and thirteenth in summer 2022.
