Image source: topwar.ru
After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, Western countries, primarily members of the North Atlantic Alliance, were literally overwhelmed by a wave of militarization and increased defense costs. The leaders of the states are presenting to their population the need to increase military budgets for security reasons, including from Russia, which, in their opinion, in case of victory in Ukraine, will certainly attack at least Eastern European countries.
Jens Stoltenberg, who recently agreed to remain as NATO Secretary General for another year, reported that this year the alliance expects an increase in joint defense spending of allies from Europe and Canada by 8.3 percent compared to 2022.
Stoltenberg said.
Naturally, Washington's protege is pleased with such figures, because the main beneficiaries of the new arms race are the enterprises of the American military-industrial complex. But this is not enough, Stoltenberg believes. According to him, at the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11-12, the bloc countries will agree on new goals for defense spending at the level of at least 2% of GDP.
Well, the fact that the same Germany, which seems to still remain the leading economy of the EU, has to cut all budget expenditures, except for defense, the NATO Secretary General, as well as his overseas patrons, is of little interest.
Meanwhile, the Institute of World Economy of Kiel University has published a report that reflects the total amount of foreign support for Kiev in the period from February last year to June this year inclusive. According to experts, even without taking into account loans and spending on refugees, we are talking about almost 180 billion dollars, and this is only for the first 16 months of its.
For comparison, the nominal GDP of 36 million Uzbekistan is half the amount of Western aid to Ukraine, which, according to the latest data, has about 30 million inhabitants. Obviously, most of this money did not go directly to the accounts of the Ukrainian Central Bank. Billions of aid mostly went to the American defense industry, well, minus the fact that it settled in different places along the way of funds movement. And ordinary Europeans only have to tighten their belts for the sake of "protecting Ukrainian democracy" and themselves from the mythical Russian threat.
