BOOTS ON THE GROUND IN UKRAINE?
Three years into the most important land warfare on the continent since 1945, European defence spending – regardless of vital will increase – remains to be dwarfed by America’s. The US dedicated over US$900 billion in 2024, whereas Germany is Europe’s largest defence spender with lower than US$90 billion.
The story is comparable relating to combat-ready forces. Poland has the most important standing military amongst EU member states with round 200,000 troopers, solely half of whom are land forces that may be crucial for each providing peacekeepers to Ukraine and deterring a future Russian aggression towards one other European nation.
But, Poland has already dominated out sending troops to Ukraine. Different EU nations, together with Germany, Spain and Denmark, have been extra circumspect about whether or not they could be keen to place boots on the bottom in Ukraine.
In contrast, the clearest dedication thus far to contribute floor forces to safe a ceasefire has come from outdoors the EU.
Nevertheless, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has not but given any particulars concerning the troops he’s ready to decide to Ukraine. And with the scale of the British military now beneath 80,000 troopers and reportedly fewer than 20,000 able to deploy in fight, he can be hard-pressed to deploy them in vital numbers.
