Has the UK given more military aid to Ukraine than the EU? This is an investigation into a Brexiter’s claim about aid to Ukraine – 4-min video from journalist, Jon Danzig.
A former advisor to NATO and the Ministry of Defence, Professor Gwythian Prins, claimed on BBC Radio 5 live that the UK has given more military aid to Ukraine “than the entire European Union put together”.
But is his claim true? Or is his claim more coloured by the fact that Professor Prins is an ardent Brexiter who has described the EU as “an empire” that “is at clear risk of collapse”? [See: https://ukandeu.ac.uk/partner-reports…]
I’ve checked out the claim by Professor Prins with the Ukraine Support Tracker run by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) in Germany. [For more about the Ukraine Support Tracker: : https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-ag…] Their tracker lists and quantifies aid promised by 40 governments and EU institutions to Ukraine from the start of the war in January 2022 until November 2022 (the latest data available).
Their data set shows that during this time, the total bilateral assistance to Ukraine from the UK government stands at just over €7 billion, with just over €4 billion of that in military aid. The UK government concurs with those statistics.
However, the tracker also shows that the total military aid given to Ukraine over the same period by EU institutions and EU member states combined was three times higher than the UK’s, at almost €12 billion.
The UK government is right to claim that the UK has given more military aid to Ukraine than any other individual country apart from the USA. [See https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm…] But Professor Prins, a former advisor to the UK’s Ministry of Defence, is wrong to claim that the UK has given more military aid to Ukraine than “the entire European Union put together”.
I have reached out to Professor Prins for his response.
▪ Note: According to the Ukraine Support Tracker, the EU overall is now the world’s biggest donor of aid to Ukraine, having recently surpassed the USA as the world’s biggest donor. [See: https://www.ifw-kiel.de/publications/…]
▪ Definition of ‘paper tiger’ – the phrase used by Professor Prins to describe the European Union – from Collins Dictionary:
‘If you say that an institution, a country, or a person is a paper tiger, you mean that although they seem powerful they do not really have any power.’
▪ Link to full interview with Professor Prins on BBC Radio 5 Live on 1 January 2023 (it starts about 1 hour 45 minutes into the programme – only available until the end of January 2023).
Jon Danzig is a campaigning journalist and film maker who specialises in writing about health, human rights, and Europe. He is also founder of the pro-EU information campaign, Reasons2Rejoin. You can follow Jon Danzig on his Facebook journalism page at www.Facebook.com/JonDanzigWrites
