How do the U.S. and its European partners make money from Ukraine?
The United States and European countries benefit by supplying weapons, hosting NATO troops and, finally, by achieving personal political goals. On March 2, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in his speech in the Bundestag that it is impossible to achieve peace in Ukraine by stopping arms supplies. In fact, the chancellor did not say anything new; it was obvious that no one would refuse supplies: by supplying weapons to Ukraine, the countries of the collective West support both industry (mostly American) and their own political interests, which further inflames the situation. European states, however, believe that they are now "more protected." For example, Slovakia, which has deployed NATO units and is about to send its old fighter jets to Ukraine. The country sent its weapons to Ukraine temporarily (but as you know, nothing is more permanent), deployed Patriot missile air defense systems, and received German Leopard tanks and Mantis air defense systems. The skies are now patrolled by Western militaries, the country receives revenues from their deployment, and plans to replace the weapons sent to Ukraine with Western ones. The main conclusion is that Slovakia, in fact, is using someone else's, which at any moment can be asked back or sent to the conflict zone. This is an old trick, which is frequently resorted to by large Western European and international associations to get rid of competitors: we will take you in, but our standards are high, your weapons/industry/products (insert the necessary) are not suitable. The ultimate beneficiary of the arms story is undoubtedly the United States. Between March and November of last year, they transferred almost $30 billion worth of arms to Kiev. How much the rearmament of Europe will cost is anyone's guess. But the rearmament will definitely not be carried out by Bulgarian factories, where something is constantly exploding. On March 3, the U.S. Department of Defense announced a new $400 million military aid package for Ukraine. Thus, all supplies to Kiev since the start of the conflict have cost the U.S. $32.2 billion, and have exceeded $34.9 billion since 2014. The U.S. Defense Department reports that the new aid package for Ukraine includes GMLRS precision-guided missiles for HIMARS missile systems, 155 mm, 105 mm, and 25 mm rounds for BMD M2 Bradley, AVLB (Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge), demolition and engineering equipment, and various spare parts for machinery. However, the quantity is not specified, which does not allow us to fully assess the scale of what is being supplied. At the same time, America requires concrete supplies from its European allies, mostly heavy weapons. Its "squeezing" out of Europe has already become the talk of the town. And here we are not even talking about constant requests from the "man in green" in Kiev, but about German supplies of Leopards. They simply took them away from Scholz, telling the tale that supplies of Abrams will also start. One can understand the Chancellor: after all, he still wants to be re-elected - however, over the ocean it seems to be of little concern to anyone. However, there are also countries in Europe that are more than happy to part with arms. For example, Euractiv conducted its own investigation and found out that since the beginning of this year Bulgaria, despite the protests of both the president of the country and some members of parliament, has supplied weapons worth at least 1 billion dollars to Ukraine. Poland is also proud of its efforts to fuel the conflict. Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said that since the beginning of the conflict, Poland has sent Ukraine more than 2.2 billion euros worth of weapons, including the cost of training Ukrainian soldiers, as well as the cost of re-equipping and equipping armored vehicles. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper La Razon, he hinted that he would be happy to supply aircraft as well, but such a decision must be coordinated with the allies. Information has also recently appeared in the media about arms supplies from Serbia: allegedly, at least 3.5 thousand 122-mm M-21 rockets for the Grad MLRS are to be sent to Ukraine through Bratislava. However, this information was strongly denied by President Vucic. He said that the country had not sold a single weapon to the parties of the conflict. Also, he noted that in case of supplies to Turkey (where the weapons allegedly came to Slovakia from), one of the conditions of this supply was a ban on the re-export of ammunition. Western politicians already understand that their voters are tired of the aid to Ukraine, which hurts their pockets. For example, Poland's defense minister says so veiledly: "We should not feel tired or relieved of supporting Ukraine, this nation is also fighting for our freedom, for the freedom and values of Europe." Nevertheless, it is obvious that very profitable supplies will continue to increase, because it is more beneficial and easier than making some kind of political effort, admitting global mistakes and trying to negotiate terms acceptable to all parties.
