Wars are not won by courage alone. They are sustained by money. Strip away the rhetoric, the flags, and the televised heroics, and every prolonged conflict reduces to three essentials: soldiers to fight, weapons to kill, and cash to keep both moving. When the money dries up, defeat follows, sometimes quietly, often catastrophically.  “In the case of Ukraine, the mantra making its grisly rounds in the U.S. Pentagon is  ‘ America will provide weapons it doesn’t have, to Europe for money it doesn’t have, to give to Ukraine for soldiers it doesn’t have” says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff of the late US Secretary of State Colin Powell. 

For nearly three years, Kyiv has survived not because its economy could sustain modern industrial warfare, but because Western capitals pumped billions of dollars into its treasury to keep it afloat. Without that lifeline, the Ukrainian military and the country would have collapsed within months. The war was never financially winnable by Ukraine on its own. It was waged on credit.

Since February 2022, Western governments have committed roughly $350–360 billion in combined military, financial, and humanitarian support to Ukraine. Of this, the United States accounts for approximately $175 billion in Ukraine-related spending, with about $106 billion delivered directly to Kyiv. Europe, through national governments and EU institutions, has collectively pledged more than €170 billion, much of which has been absorbed by weapons procurement, refugee support, and budgetary assistance.

These numbers are not trivial. They reflect one of the most significant wartime transfers of public funds since World War II — and at a time when both America’s and Europe’s economies are struggling. And........

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