On Thursday, 23 January, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called on the United States to continue to supply armaments to Ukraine, adding that Europeans would foot the bill.
During a debate at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Rutte explained, “On Ukraine: we need the US also to stay involved and to do as much as possible to get Ukraine in a position of strength and have the peace talks start.”
He went on to add, “If this new Trump administration is willing to keep on supplying Ukraine with defence industrial from its defence industrial base, the bill will be paid by the Europeans. I’m absolutely convinced of this. We have to be willing to do that because at this moment, [the Americans] are paying more than the Europeans.”
During a speech at the European Defence Agency’s annual conference the previous day, Ukrainian Minister of Defence Rustem Umerov had called on Europeans to further fund the Ukrainian defence industry. “There is a lack of funding for fully utilising Ukraine’s defence industry. In 2025, our capacity will amount to €34 billion, while the funding we have is €16 billion”, he explained.
Specifying that the deficit to be funded was thus €18 billion to reinforce defence capabilities in the long term, he asked Europeans to help Ukraine close this funding gap, facilitate the transfer of technology, and establish a strategic partnership with its industry. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)