European military aid to Ukraine, which some people deny or ridicule, in numbers

Recently, we have been reading and hearing many messages ridiculing or even denying European military aid to Ukraine.

This is not a peace process: it is favoring Russia and will not only have effects for Ukraine
The more than 700 tanks donated to Ukraine by other countries: their numbers and models

All these messages are aimed in the same direction: to maintain the idea that Ukraine should surrender because Europe has not helped it. An idea based on a lie.

European aid to Ukraine exceeds that of the US in absolute terms

To find out how European aid to Ukraine is shaping up in numbers, there are several useful sources. The most comprehensive is the Ukraine Support Tracker from the Kiel Institute for World Economy. This source indicates that from January 24, 2022 to December 31, 2024, European government aid to Ukraine amounts to 132.3 billion euros, to which must be added 115.1 billion pending allocation. US government aid has amounted to 114.2 billion euros.

The same source provides another significant fact: the government support approved by the US shows a clear gap between the approved budgetary support and the disbursed support: of 46.6 billion euros approved, the US disbursed 29.05 billion to Ukraine. What happened to the remaining 27.65 billion euros that were not disbursed? It is reasonable to assume that part of it is on the way, but what about the rest? This gap between the two figures is much smaller in the European case, according to the source: of 46.38 billion approved by the European institutions, 42.44 billion has already been disbursed to Ukraine.

16 European countries have given more aid relative to their GDP than the US

The Ukraine Support Tracker also includes a meaningful table: government aid to Ukraine by country relative to GDP. Obviously, the US is a large and populous country and in absolute terms has provided the majority of aid, but much smaller aid from smaller countries may have been a much bigger effort for them. The numbers are telling: 16 European countries have provided more aid in proportion to their GDP than the US. Adding bilateral aid to the aid channeled by those countries through the European Union, the figures are as follows (I list only European countries and the US):

• Estonia: 2.51% of GDP.
• Denmark: 2.48% of GDP.
• Lithuania: 2.08% of GDP.
• Latvia: 1.83% of GDP.
• Finland: 1.31% of GDP.
• Sweden: 1.19% of GDP.
• Poland: 1.11% of GDP.
• Netherlands: 1.03% of GDP.
• Slovakia: 0.96% of GDP.
• Croatia: 0.84% ​​of GDP.
• Czech Republic: 0.8% of GDP.
• Norway: 0.75% of GDP.
• Romania: 0.72% of GDP.
• Germany: 0.72% of GDP.
• Belgium: 0.68% of GDP.
• Bulgaria: 0.6% of GDP.
• United States: 0.53% of GDP.
• Luxembourg: 0.52% of GDP.
• France: 0.51% of GDP.
• United Kingdom: 0.51% of GDP.
• Austria: 0.51% of GDP.
• Italy: 0.47% of GDP.
• Slovenia: 0.46% of GDP.
• Canada: 0.45% of GDP.
• Spain: 0.45% of GDP.
• Portugal: 0.43% of GDP.
• Greece: 0.4% of GDP.
• Cyprus: 0.34% of GDP.
• Hungary: 0.33% of GDP (it has not provided any military aid).
• Malta: 0.29% of GDP.
• Ireland: 0.23% of GDP.
• Iceland: 0.18% of GDP.
• Switzerland: 0.13% of GDP.

Some data on the military material delivered

The Ukraine Support Tracker does not list specific military hardware delivered to Ukraine. The English-language edition of Wikipedia has a very comprehensive index of this material. In absolute terms, US aid has been outstanding, with large quantities of armored vehicles, tactical vehicles, missiles, artillery systems, small arms, ammunition, drones, and radar. Certainly, Ukraine owes the US a large share of the aid it has received that has so far enabled the Ukrainian people to defend themselves against the Russian invasion.

The US did not deliver any fighter aircraft: European countries donated 142

However, as can be seen from the list, the aid provided by European countries has been enormous. In fact, despite having a huge Air Force, the US has not provided any fighter aircraft to Ukraine, but several European countries have delivered or are in the process of delivering more than 142 fighter jets, some of them practically giving up most of what they had: Belgium (30 F-16 fighters), Bulgaria (14 Su-25 attack aircraft), Denmark (19 F-16 fighters), Slovakia (13 MiG-29 fighters), North Macedonia (4 Su-25 attack aircraft), the Netherlands (42 F-16 fighters), Norway (6 F-16 fighters), Poland (14 MiG-29 fighters), and France (an unspecified number of Mirage 2000 fighters, pending delivery).

The US delivered 20 helicopters to Ukraine, while European countries delivered 77

On the other hand, despite the large fleet, the US has not delivered any helicopters from its armed forces to Ukraine (the few US-made helicopters used by Ukraine are UH-60 Black Hawks purchased by the Ukrainians from a US company). As government aid, the US delivered 20 Mi-17 helicopters to Ukraine, which were originally intended for Afghanistan but did not arrive after the Taliban victory.

In turn, several European countries have donated a total of 77 helicopters to Ukraine, including 57 attack helicopters: Croatia (14 Mi-8 transport helicopters), Czech Republic (17 Mi-24 and Mi-35 attack helicopters), Slovakia (5 transport helicopters: 1 Mi-2 and 4 Mi-17), Latvia (6 transport helicopters: 2 Mi-8, 2 Mi-2 and 2 Mi-17), North Macedonia (14 Mi-24 attack helicopters), Poland (12 Mi-24 attack helicopters, 2 Mi-8 transport helicopters and 1 Bell 412-HP light helicopter), Portugal (6 Ka-32 medium helicopters) and United Kingdom (1 Mi-24 attack helicopter, 2 Mi-8 transport helicopters and 1 Bell 412-HP light helicopter) and United Kingdom (3 Westland Sea King naval helicopters). Some of the countries mentioned have delivered almost their entire helicopter fleet to Ukraine, which is a particular merit.

US delivered 31 tanks to Ukraine, European countries delivered more than 650

The chapter on tanks is the most difficult to understand. According to "The Military Balance 2024" of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the US has 2,640 M1 Abrams tanks in service and more than 2,000 in storage, being the NATO country with the largest fleet of tanks. Despite this, the US only delivered 31 M1A1 Abrams to Ukraine (the oldest version in its arsenal) and 45 old T-72Bs of Soviet origin, paid for by the Czech company Excalibur Army.

To give you an idea, in October Australia announced the delivery of 49 M1A1 Abrams to Ukraine (the Australian Army currently has 59 M1A1s). If we compare US aid with that provided by European countries, the figure is even more incomprehensible. To cite just a few examples, Poland donated some 330 tanks (more than 250 T-72s, 14 Leopard 2A4s and 60 PT-91s); the Czech Republic delivered more than 194 tanks (Soviet T-72s of various types); The Netherlands delivered 85 tanks (45 T-72s, 33 Leopard 1s and 7 Leopard 2A4s); Croatia has announced the delivery of 30 M-84s (its small army has 74 of these tanks in service); Denmark has delivered more than 92 tanks (70 Leopard 1s, 7 Leopard 2A4s and 15 T-72s), etc.

As of February 2023, the number of tanks delivered by European countries to Ukraine was around 650. That number has since increased. Even some of the countries that have donated the least military aid to Ukraine have delivered a proportionally larger number of tanks than the US in relation to its resources. For example, Portugal has delivered 3 of its 37 Leopard 2A6, a proportionally much larger aid than that from the US. In turn, Spain has sent 29 Leopard 2A4, a figure very similar to that of Abrams donated by the US, with the difference that the Spanish fleet of tanks was 327 (108 Leopard 2A4 and 219 Leopardo 2E).

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Main photo: General Staff of the Ukrainian Army. A Leopard 2 tank of the 33rd Independent Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Army.