The foreign ministers of Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the European Union recently stressed the importance of “rapid and collective implementation” of the Group of Seven’s US$50 billion loan to Ukraine and said they supported Kyiv on its “irreversible path” to Nato membership.
Without aid from countries in the transatlantic security alliance, Ukraine might have already been defeated. However, countries could be doing better – not in terms of the amounts they pledge, which are generous, but in the speed of disbursement. Ukrainians are paying not in cash but in blood. If weapons do not arrive in time, people die.
Bureaucracy is an unnecessary barrier to the Nato war effort. Take the UK as an example.
Russia’s invasion in February 2022 prompted an immediate and forceful response from the UK. In 2022, then British prime minister Boris Johnson was one of the first Western leaders to visit Ukraine.
To date, the UK has pledged over £12 billion (US$15.2 billion) in aid. That aid can come in large, glamorous deals involving tanks or guided missiles, which can take months or years to provide. Recently, Britain has sped up, committing to deliver 16 AS90 artillery guns within a tighter time frame.
Other deals can be smaller: bullets, grenades, shells and the like, which should be bought, sold and used up rapidly at the front. One of the companies I work with has, with great difficulty, secured a supply of much-needed artillery shells for Ukraine. The company can either sell these directly to Ukraine, or to the UK government, which will then gift them to Ukraine.