Trump's money-making deal: NATO buys more US weapons to help Ukraine

BrusselsDonald Trump's profitable business. The United States has substantially reduced the resources it sends to Ukraine, and not only is it forcing European allies to assume a large part of the costs of the fight against Vladimir Putin's expansionism, but it is also putting pressure on the Ukrainians. buy American weapons to continue assisting Ukrainian troops, a strategy that became clear at the meeting of defense ministers of the Atlantic Alliance this Wednesday in Brussels.

Several Atlantic allies, especially the Baltic and Nordic countries, have announced that they will begin participating or increase the money they allocate to the PURL initiative, which consists of purchasing US weapons to send to Ukraine. At this point, states such as Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Canada have already joined. In contrast, southern European countries, such as Spain, Italy, and France, are reluctant and have not yet shown any sign of wanting to contribute.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been very optimistic and has expressed confidence that more partners of the Atlantic Alliance will join the initiative promoted by the Pentagon itself. "Our expectation is that [this Wednesday] more countries will give more, that they will buy even more, to provide Ukraine with everything necessary to bring this conflict to a peaceful conclusion," the US leader told reporters before the meeting. Currently, according to Ukraine, the initiative already has a budget of 3.5 billion euros.

This mechanism, however, clashes head-on with the intentions of European allies to gain military autonomy from the United States, both in terms of industrial arms production and defense capabilities. In fact, most of the major rearmament plans of European Union member states, such as Germany, already plan to prioritize the purchase of European weapons to boost community industry and stop depending on US weapons manufacturing.

The US Secretary of Defense also took advantage of the defense of the Pentagon's initiative to send US weapons to Ukraine to once again heap praise on Trump, who has "shown" to Gaza that "peace is achieved through strength, not through harsh words." Along the same lines, Hegseth expressed optimism that the US president will achieve peace in Ukraine, although he has failed so far, and Putin also ignored his calls to halt the invasion.

A common protocol to stop Russian fighter incursions

The main topic of this Wednesday's defense ministerial meeting is the defense of NATO airspace following Russian fighter incursions into NATO territory and the suspicion of several airspace violations by Russian drones. The partners' intention is to strengthen Operation Eastern Sentinel and, above all, increase the protection of NATO's eastern flank, as envisioned by the drone wall initiative promoted by the European Commission. In fact, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte asserted that they are working in "absolute coordination" with European Union authorities.

At this point, Rutte also recalled that the protocol for action when a Russian fighter jet violates NATO airspace is to force it to leave NATO's sovereignty and only shoot it down if it poses a threat to the security of the allies. Thus, the former Dutch prime minister sought to cool the escalation of the war with Russia and argued that with NATO's military capabilities, which are "stronger" than Russia's, a "proportional" response is possible. In contrast, Rutte asserted that excessive action by the allies would be a "sign of weakness." This warning comes just after some allies have called for greater force against air violations by Russian fighter jets and Trump himself has encouraged them to be shot down without hesitation.