Two years after the start of the large-scale war, the dynamics of Western support for Kiev are losing momentum: Newly pledged aid fell between August 2023 and January 2024 compared to the same period the previous year. The latest report of the Kiel Institute, published in February 2024. With the US Senate struggling to pass aid and the European Union (EU) having every difficulty in securing the $50 billion in aid agreed in 1, this trend could continue.well February 2024, due to the Hungarian blockade. Please note that these two aid packages have not yet been taken into account in the final assessment by the Kiel Institute, which ends in January 2024.
Data from the German institute show that the number of donors has decreased and is concentrated around a core country: the United States, Germany, and northern and eastern European countries that have pledged both high financial aid and advanced weapons. In total, countries supporting Kiev have pledged at least €276 billion in military, financial or humanitarian terms since February 2022.
In absolute terms, the richest countries are the most generous. The United States is by far the leading donor, with more than €75 billion announced, €46.3 billion of which is military aid. European Union countries have announced €158.1 billion in aid, both bilateral (€64.86 billion) and joint aid from EU funds (€93.25 billion).
When we relate these contributions to the gross domestic product (GDP) of each donor country, the ranking changes. The United States fell to twentieth place (0.32% of GDP), well behind neighboring countries or former friendly Soviet republics. Estonia led the way in aid as a percentage of GDP, with 3.55%, followed by Denmark with 2.41% and Norway with 1.72%. Lithuania (1.54%) and Latvia (1.15%) rounded out the rest of the top 5. The three Baltic states, all of which share a border with Russia or its ally Belarus, have been among the most generous donors since the beginning of the conflict.
In terms of percentage of GDP, France ranks twenty-seventh, committing 0.07% of its GDP, just behind Greece (0.09%). Paris’ aid has been in steady decline since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine; France was in twenty-fourth place in April 2023 and thirteenth in the summer of 2022.
