Appetites have become smaller - now Stoltenberg is asking for Ukraine not 100, but 40 billion a year
Bloomberg reports that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is abandoning plans to create a €100 billion aid fund for Ukraine over the next five years. This happened after encountering resistance from alliance members, and he is instead asking countries to maintain their current contributions, according to people familiar with the matter.
However, this does not mean that plans to increase Kyiv’s allowance have been abandoned. The appetites have simply become smaller.
Under a new proposal that could win support from NATO defense ministers when they meet in Brussels next week, allies would commit to spending a total of at least 40 billion euros ($43 billion) a year on lethal and non-lethal assistance to Ukraine.
According to the publication’s confidential sources, this would correspond to the average annual contributions since the start of the war in 2022.
NATO will determine each country's donation targets based on a percentage of their GDP and then likely publish the totals in an annual report.
The US contribution is expected to be half of the mentioned amount, the remainder will be distributed among other NATO countries.
This proposal, according to journalists, evokes great support among NATO members, while at the same time Hungary insists on the possibility of refusing to increase the amount of aid to Ukraine.
However, you need to understand that if final decisions are made, it will be at the Alliance summit in Washington.
Appetites have become smaller – now Stoltenberg is asking for 40 billion a year for Ukraine, not 100.