Ukraine
Feb 28, 2025 on FoxNews
RT (Russia Today) Feb 28, 2025
Russia applauds Trump/Vance, Europe is in shock.
Trump/Putin’s comments on Ukraine
Zelensky is a ‘dictator without elections’
Zelensky’s first five-year term of office was due to come to an end in May 2024. However, Ukraine has been under martial law since the Russian invasion in February 2022, which means elections are suspended.
‘You should have never started it (the war with Russia)’
Ukraine didn’t start the war. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, having annexed Crimea in 2014.
Why should the US support Ukraine?
First and foremost, the Russian invasion of Ukraine must not go unchecked. China is watching with an eye on Taiwan.
Here are some additional economic and political reasons for continuing Ukrainian support.
90% of Ukraine aid spending stays in the U.S., creating thousands of jobs
A study has shown that 90% of Ukraine aid dollars are not actually sent to Ukraine. Rather, these funds stay in the U.S., where leading defense contractors have invested tens of billions in over 100 new industrial manufacturing facilities, creating thousands of jobs across at least 38 states directly, with vital subcomponents sourced from all 50 states.
The Ukraine conflict has revitalized NATO, lessening the relative economic burden on the U.S.
The degree to which Europe is now stepping up to the plate after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and sharing the burden with the U.S. is striking. Prior to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, only two European countries spent more than 2% of their GDP on defense spending. Now, 11 NATO members spend more than 2% of their GDP on defense, with some members such as Poland spending even more than the U.S. as a percentage of GDP. At least six European countries increased their defense spending by over 10% last year alone, including some by up to 30%.
Russian military might has been severely degraded without a single active duty American military casualty
The U.S. is the single biggest winner regardless, with one of the world’s three most potent militaries severely degraded and humiliated without a single active duty American military casualty, using only 5% of our U.S. defense budget and less than 1% of our total government spending—with a sum equivalent to the amount the U.S. is spending on such mundane items such as software for government agencies; COVID rental relief; and interstate highway traffic signs.
By contrast, Russia is now spending 40% of its government budget on defense, cannibalizing the rest of the productive economy to fund war after losing 50% of its military might over the last two years.
SOURCE: https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/what-the-us-has-to-gain-from-supporting-ukraine
Who else is supporting Ukraine?
Additional Information: https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-us-aid-going-ukraine
Basic information regarding Ukraine:
Area
total : 603,550 sq km
land: 579,330 sq km
water: 24,220 sq kmPopulation
total: 35,661,826
Ethnic groups
Ukrainian 77.8%, Russian 17.3%, Belarusian 0.6%, Moldovan 0.5%, Crimean Tatar 0.5%, Bulgarian 0.4%, Hungarian 0.3%, Romanian 0.3%, Polish 0.3%, Jewish 0.2%, other 1.8% (2001 est.)
Real GDP (purchasing power parity)
$559.981 billion (2023 est.)
$531.796 billion (2022 est.)
$746.471 billion (2021 est.)
SOURCE: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/ukraine/factsheets/
