By Daniel DePetris
If concerns about NATO’s irrelevance to Europe started dissipating after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, they were extinguished when Russian ballistic missiles began crashing into Kyiv, Mariupol, Kharkiv, and Odesa in February 2022. Out-of-area missions such as the two-decades-long occupation of Afghanistan are now being de-prioritized. The alliance is back to its original function: protecting Europe from Russian aggression. A core strategy of this objective, in the view of policy-makers, is to provide Ukraine with the military equipment it needs to defend itself in the face of a conventional war such as the world hasn’t seen since the 1980s, when Iraqi and Iranian soldiers were shooting at each other for eight long years.
While Ukraine is not a formal member of the alliance, NATO has nevertheless treated it as a close partner deserving of extensive military support. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine Ukraine’s army having had such stellar success on the battlefield without U.S. and NATO contributions. NATO members have sent Ukraine more than $70 billion in military aid—from bullets and air-defense systems to missiles. (Of that total, the U.S. has given more than $40 billion, close to 60 percent.) NATO members trained nine new Ukrainian army brigades—roughly 30,000 Ukrainian troops—specifically for the ongoing counteroffensive. Ukrainians now operate American HIMARS missile systems, German Leopard tanks, and British attack drones.
This piece was originally published in National Review on July 27, 2023. Read more HERE.