Amount Of Aid To Ukraine: A Proxy War?

The war in Ukraine has been going on for over a year now with much devastation and the world hoping for an end to this war. But many are saying that this war is a proxy war that is being fueled by western nations. That may be right due to the amount of aid that has been sent in this nearly one year long conflict.

Ukraine has received more than 100 billion dollars in foreign aid from many countries which mainly comprises NATO countries. This aid has come in different forms such as weapons such as guns, ammunition, armoured vehicles, artillery and anti aircraft systems. As well as money so Ukraine can purchase these items and other materials like helmets, healthcare equipment and more humanitarian aid related equipment. 

Many countries have contributed to Ukraine but the three biggest contributors in money have been the United Kingdom which has given Ukraine a little more than 7.5 billion dollars. As well as EU institutions and members who have donated around 36.8 billion dollars. But the biggest contributor to Ukraine is of course the United States, which has given Ukraine around 50 billion dollars in aid. 

This is one way to look at the contribution countries have made to Ukraine, but the other way to look at it is with the total share of the country’s GDP that they have given to Ukraine. This is related to the country’s economic output.

The country Estonia comes in with the number one spot spending 1.1 percent of its GDP on the war efforts in Ukraine. Latvia came in with the second spot giving Ukraine 0.93 percent of its GDP and Poland with the third spot at 0.5 percent. By comparing these numbers to the U.S, Washington only spent 0.23 percent of its GDP on Ukraine.

When looking at the GDP metric of the donations to Ukraine you start to see a pattern with the more Baltic nations who are on the border with Ukraine and closer to Russia giving more money in Ukraine. 

Estonia, Latvia and Poland are all NATO member countries who for obvious reasons don’t want to get into a war with Russia. So giving Ukraine everything and supplying them completely. The only part where these countries aren’t contributing to is actually pulling the triggers of the weapons themselves.

So speculation of a proxy war is something that is hard to disagree with.

The war in Ukraine is something that needs to end and needs to be resolved in order to stop the chaos. One day it will obviously end and if Ukraine is victorious then Ukraine will be in significant debt to the rest of the world.