Europe is capable of sustaining Ukraine’s resistance against Russia, even if the United States were to decide to completely halt its military support to Kyiv, the senior military official in charge of coordinating Germany’s arms supplies told Reuters.

Major General Christian Freuding said NATO’s European members plus Canada had already exceeded the estimated $20 billion worth of U.S. military aid provided last year to Kyiv.

They accounted for around 60% of the total costs borne by the Western allies, he said.

“The war against Ukraine is raging on our continent, it is also being waged against the European security order. If the political will is there, then the means will also be there to largely compensate for the American support,” Freuding said in an interview.

  • Cris@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    Man I’m glad to hear that, cause the US isn’t exactly a dependable ally right now 😅 (sorry, I wish we were 🥲)

    • systemglitch@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      I don’t think America can ever be considered reliable or an ally during my remaining life ever again.

      • Habahnow@sh.itjust.works
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        10 days ago

        I kinda feel the issues happening in the US will be resolved soonish. And by resolved I mean, either the US will fall apart, and add you said will continue to be unreliable, or trumpisn will be defeated

        • thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works
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          10 days ago

          Even after trumpism is defeated, there’s a lot of trust for the US people to rebuild with their allies.

          If the people are so willing to vote in dictator idiot maniacs, then how can other countries trust those same people to not do it again?

          It’s the same for European countries at the moment as well. The UK is fairly less trusted right now because they vote idiots like Farage, Hungary is snubbed because Orban is a Russian колбаса sucker - so on and so on.

          Those generations that vote these people in will still live a few more decades and as such any goodwill towards them is diminished.

          • Dremor@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            The root goes further than Trump. But Trump sure showed the ugly face of US then hidden shadow.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      This is true. It’s also true that Europe needs to have the capacity to handle something like this on their own. The complaint that the US won’t save Europe THIS TIME, AGAIN, says as much about Europe as the US.

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    As I keep saying, America may be a shitshow, but Europe needs to look in the mirror before it happens to you guys too. Far right parties are gaining lots of traction while many assume the EU will be fine, and more war spending is going to exacerbate that.

    • wulrus@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      The far right doesn’t even need to win directly. Even within conservative parties, such as Germany’s CDU, the populists make it to the top. They have good people with real solutions up to a state level, maybe more than any other party, but the new chancellor and most of the ministers from his own party are populists.

      Conservatives with a real vision and plan might soon suffer the same fate as McCain and Romney.

      This has a whole chain of consequences. Problems are not solved and increase, the far right gains.

      Also, the current government coalition of the two formerly major parties didn’t even get half of the votes, resulting in less acceptance of the democratic process and legitimacy of the government. Not a big difference to the electoral college problem in the USA.

  • CircaV@lemmy.ca
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    10 days ago

    Damn right, France can sail a fucking nuclear sub into Russia and blow up St Petersburg if they want.

        • Siegfried@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          OP is suggesting nuking a civilian target just to do a display of force. That alone is bad enough in my book, but to top it, there is nothing for the western side to win from such a bold move and it would give russia a white card for using nukes…

          I did mistake him from being a Californian, but I think CA is Canada? In that case, my bad…

  • biofaust@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    I am personally supporting Ukrainians every week. I am also pro-rearmament in the EU.

    That said, said by Germany, this should be read as “we are strongly reliant on heavy industries, but our cars in record low demand, so we really, really, really want to build a lot of weapons for Ukraine (and we will keep some for us, while we decide whether to agree or not on standards and common resource pooling with the rest of the EU)”

    EU needs to take several other steps before going head-first into (over-)production of weapons at the levels being discussed here.

    Germany sounds every other day like they forget there other 26 countries with them in the Union. And I could say the same about France, but under the military POV France is much more defendable.

  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    The European NATO members, combined, already have more soldiers, armored vehicles and aircraft than the USA. Three problems, lack of combat experience, modernization, and naval assets. If the AmeriKans want out, then close every single installation and leave peacefully. We can support Ukraine and should purchase weapons from within the EU or from friendly partners.