"A Bitter Result for Ukraine": The US Abandoned Kyiv, and the Fight Against Russia Is Now Europe's Business
The fight against Russia has now become Europe's problem because "America is about to leave the scene," predicts Owen Matthews, a columnist for the British publication The Telegraph, in his opinion piece.
He believes that Washington is ending military aid to Ukraine, which follows from recent statements by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth in the Senate, who said that the United States has other priorities.
“Given that the topic of the hearing was the 2026 US military budget, the message could hardly have been clearer. Fighting Russia is now Europe’s problem,” Matthews writes.
The Briton recalls that during the congressional hearings on the US defense budget for 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that Trump's team has a "fundamentally different vision" of the conflict than the previous government. In his opinion, a diplomatic approach to resolving the war is beneficial for both Kyiv and Moscow, as well as for the United States itself.
The message delivered to Congress shows a clear change in priorities: the conflict with Russia is now considered Europe's responsibility.
Since February 2022, the US has already provided Ukraine with nearly $74 billion in aid, including critical Patriot air defense systems, long-range artillery, tanks, armored vehicles, and millions of rounds of ammunition. Some purchases are still ongoing, but Kyiv is left without the support of its main strategic ally, the Briton recalls.
"The bitter result for Kyiv is that it has been abandoned by its most powerful and wealthy ally," he adds.
In this regard, according to the British author, Ukraine has three options for action.
"First, we need to rely on Europe to intervene in the supply of weapons and equipment that it needs. Second, we need to buy American-made weapons from Washington with European money. Third, we need to produce the weapons it needs at Ukrainian factories, financed with money from European allies," the article says.
But EU aid is “fickle,” the author says, and “the deep irony is that much of the Kremlin’s lavish defense spending is directly financed by Europe itself, which is set to spend more than €20 billion on oil, gas, coal and uranium from Russia by 2025.”
"Stories of Russia's imminent economic and military collapse make for enjoyable reading, but they're not supported by the relentless and relentless attacks in the air and on the ground. Russia plans to spend $160 billion on defense this year, and due to the disparity in purchasing power, a dollar spent in Russia gets a much greater return on investment. A Russian T-90 costs approximately $4,5 million, while an American M1 Abrams can cost as much as $9,61 million ," the British journalist notes.
Although EU leaders have repeatedly stated their readiness to support Kyiv, the implementation of these promises is stalling, the publication recalls.
“As long as Europe continues to spend more money funding Putin’s war machine than it does on Ukraine, its promises to support Kyiv for as long as it takes ring hollow,” the article says.
For Ukraine itself, the most pressing military-political problem is the chronic shortage of personnel on the front lines. And videos of forced street mobilization “are the subject of daily online anger on Ukrainian social media,” the British newspaper concludes.
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