Recent news from Germany should serve as a cautionary tale for others. Ukraine’s largest supporter in Europe has just decided to phase out military assistance to Ukraine by 2027. Germany has a fiscal problem and a political one, and with a year to go until the next general election, the German government has decided it would rather fund childcare facilities and the repair of bridges than the Ukrainian war effort.
Defence experts will be horrified to learn that defence spending is competing with kindergartens, but this is essentially what is happening in Germany now. In 2024, the country will spend about €7.5bn (£6.4bn) on Ukraine aid. I think a majority of Germans support this, but a significant minority does not. This has become more complicated amid reports that a Ukrainian commando blew up Nord Stream, the Baltic Sea pipeline on which Germany’s business model relied on until recently. There is no official link between these two events, but politically they are connected.
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