The President of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), Paul Grod, has signed a joint appeal with representatives of Western civil society urging increased assistance for Ukraine. Leading intellectuals, politicians, journalists, and public figures from European, US, Canadian, and Australian countries appeal to the Ukraine Defense Contact Group participating countries within the Ramstein format.
“Some European countries continue to offer only extremely modest bilateral military aid to Ukraine. Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg and France are among the most parsimonious members of the Ramstein coalition. They are thus taking advantage of the generosity of their allies, betraying their own past leadership and undermining the cohesion of Europe,” the appeal reads.
The wartime economy, advocated by French President Emmanuel Macron in June 2022, has not been implemented, state the signatories. The volume of military aid from all coalition countries within the Ramstein format has reached its lowest level in many months – €1 billion per month. Meanwhile, Russia has increased its defense budget by 68%, now amounting to €106 billion. For comparison, Ukraine’s budget is €43 billion.
“Against this background, the debate between those who want to provide aid “for as long as it takes” and those who argue that Ukraine must receive whatever it needs “to win as quickly as possible” seems obsolete. We need to do both: provide arms in quantity and quality on the one hand, and over time on the other. And the countries that have so far been the most parsimonious should be the first to give a strong signal of long-term support in terms of quality and quantity,” the appeal reads.
The appeal authors propose that France transfer two squadrons of Rafale aircraft to Ukraine, and Italy increase the production of NH90 helicopters and also provide this assistance to Kyiv. The signatories believe this would send a powerful signal to other countries.
“As shown by the Budapest Memorandum, security guarantees are usually not worth the paper they are written on. Today, the only real guarantee of security we can offer Ukraine is to supply it with arms in sufficient quantity and quality,” the text summarizes.
Overall, the appeal has been signed by several hundred individuals, including American philosopher and publicist Francis Fukuyama, former US Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, American economist and Nobel laureate Eugene Fama, UWC Vice President for North America and Ukrainian Congress Committee of America Vice President (UCCA) Marta Farion, Head of the Association of Ukrainians in Belgium Igor Chocholak, and others.
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