Washington’s support for Ukraine should not dispel a sense of urgency among EU countries, Ukraine and its allies warn.
Washington has agreed to send billions more in aid to Ukraine, but Kyiv’s message to Europe is clear: You guys are not off the hook.
“We all welcome the decision of the U.S. House of Representatives … But we in Europe cannot and should not relax,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said during a video call with EU foreign ministers on Monday. “The defense of Europe is first and foremost a matter for us, Europeans.”
European heads of state and government promised last week to step up their air defense support for Ukraine, following Germany’s announcement that it was sending a Patriot air defense system to Kyiv.
“This is not a question of months, it’s a question of days and weeks,” European Council President Charles Michel said after a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also pledged that more air defense help for Ukraine would be announced over the coming days.
But Washington’s renewed support risks taking the pressure off the EU, said two European diplomats who were granted anonymity to speak freely.
I have mixed feelings. We absolutely pushed then into this policy by using our military industrial complex as a means to exert out will through mutual defense. And it’s been overall good for all of us. We have a booming arms industry and Pax Americana and they haven’t dragged the entire planet into another war between next door neighbors.
The reality is our 20th century strategy is crumbling. Europe can no longer rely on American defense. From my American perspective an EU mutual defense pact may be wise. But if not, it’s time to arm like it’s about to be a world war, because Russia won’t stop until Spanish is written in Cyrillic.