War in Ukraine. Which countries are the most generous with Kyiv? France is far behind…

Faced with a resurgence of Russian strikes on its soil after the explosion of the Crimean bridge, kyiv once again thanked its Western allies. Which have promised to deliver “as soon as possible” new anti-aircraft defense equipment.

The strange message of « thank you » from kyiv to Paris

On the armament side, kyiv welcomed the arrival of the German “Iris-T” system and the American “Nasams”, in the face of the “massive” salvos of Russian missiles, rockets and drones, which target in particular the civil energy infrastructure. London must provide air defense missiles.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiï Reznikov also sent a strange message of thanks to France:

In this short trailer-style video, quoting Sophie Marceau, Isabelle Adjani and Brigitte Bardot against a background of rose petals and squares of chocolate, he asks for more help:

As a conclusion, the song “I love you… me neither”, by Serge Gainsbourg.

A half-serious, half-sarcastic video, to remind Paris of the weakness of its commitment compared to others – whatever the criteria.

Wednesday evening on France 2, Emmanuel Macron promised anti-aircraft « radar, systems and missiles ». It must deliver with Denmark six Caesar guns, in addition to the 18 already provided. On October 7, he also announced the creation of a “special fund”, endowed with 100 million euros, to enable kyiv to buy equipment directly from manufacturers.

90 billion euros in aid to kyiv

Since the beginning of the offensive at the end of February, 41 allied countries of kyiv have paid him around 90 billion euros in military, financial and/or humanitarian aid, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

From the point of view of the total amount of aid paid, the United States (52 billion euros) is far ahead of all the others (56% of the total alone):

France totals 1.145 billion euros in aid paid, ahead of Italy (692 million), but far behind Germany (more than 3.3 billion), contrary to what Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna claims. She responded on Wednesday to the statements of a defense specialist, who believed that only » 1.4% of the military equipment delivered to Ukraine” came from France. The Minister also insisted on the other forms that French aid takes:

Considering only financial aid (for the purchase of equipment) and military – without humanitarian aid, therefore – France is only the 13th contributing country. Minister Catherine Colonna explained that it was partly a « choice » of France not to communicate immediately on this aid, so as not to expose Ukraine. Words that are inherently unverifiable.

“Quality” rather than “obsolete” weapons

To the BBC, perhaps embarrassed by these « bad » figures, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces adds that France considers that the quality of armaments must take precedence over their quantity. He judges that some countries deliver really obsolete weapons…

This Friday, France announced the sending of “Crotale” systems and unitary rocket launchers (LRU), not first youth either.

Compared to the wealth of each country, the French commitment is not much more obvious: as a percentage of national wealth, France is in 23rd place in this graph:

Logically, countries geographically very close to Ukraine and Russia – and therefore to combat zones – are among the first: Baltic countries, Poland, Norway provided between 0.4 and 1.1% of the amount of their GDP to Ukraine.

France remains very far behind: with aid representing only 0.04% of its GDP, it is at the same level as Italy, behind Germany (0.08). Three times less than Portugal, Greece or Denmark.

The Russians, first suppliers of kyiv?

All these figures include, for European countries, donations made via the European Union, which total more than 16 billion euros – essentially financial aid.

Outside Europe, the United States largely dominates the ranking with 0.25% of their GDP supplied to kyiv, ahead of Canada (0.18%).

Finally, as noted by the Wall Street Journal, the main supplier of arms to Ukraine is undoubtedly… Russia: with each rout, the Russian army leaves behind hundreds of various pieces of equipment. » Each time, the Russians do not fall back correctly “, explained to us the specialist in aeronautics and ex-military Xavier Tytelman. For example, he recalled that on the Izioum front alone, the Ukrainian soldiers were able to recover some 400 vehicles from their adversaries…