It took about 48 hours for the “rearm Ukraine” plan presented by President Donald Trump July 14, to run up against the reality that the most aggressive proponents of Ukraine fighting to the last man are actually bankrupt, and/or, don’t want to fund the U.S. for weapons. Trump’s plan is heavily centered on selling U.S. weapons to Europe’s hyperventilating warmongers via NATO, to then hand over to Ukraine.
Yesterday, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala told the Czech news portal Publico, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda: “Czechia is focusing on other projects and ways of helping Ukraine, for example, through the ammunition initiative. Therefore, we are not currently considering joining this project.” This is from one of Europe’s most aggressive supporters of getting weaponry to Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron, according to Politico, “will not join the initiative to buy U.S. weapons” because he has called for Europeans to build up their own defense production.
Today, Italy’s La Stampa reported, citing unnamed officials, that Italy’s budget doesn’t allow it to participate in Trump’s plan. It reported that the example of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz “will not be pursued by Italy.” Rather, Rome will opt out, “not only because our weapon systems already handed over to Kiev have other technological configurations, but above all because—unlike Germany—the budget that Italy can allocate to such an operation is practically non-existent.”
RBC Ukraine reported that U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce “declined to disclose which NATO countries agreed to pay for American weapons for Ukraine.” She said, “I will not discuss certainly what we may or may not have negotiated [with NATO] or the diplomatic discussions.”
