Not everyone fears Putin equally: The Economist analyzes how EU countries spend on aid to Ukraine depending on their distance from Russia

At first glance, the European Union seems to be united in defense and in defense spending policy. Military aid to Ukraine, which is mostly spent on defense, clearly demonstrates that not all EU countries are "equally worried about Russia."

In general, the closer a European country's capital is to Moscow, the higher its military aid to Ukraine and its own defense spending, according to The Economist. They even created two graphs – one with figures for 2023 and the other for the entire period of the full-scale Russian invasion. In both of them, you can see this inverse relationship.

It is because of this dependence that Poland and the Baltic states are "under the ceiling" in the graphs, while Spain, France, Italy, and the center of Europe in general are at the very bottom.

"Trump has made it clear that he expects NATO members to increase spending to 5% of GDP if they want to continue to enjoy American protection. EU defense spending may need to be as high as 100 billion euros, up from 8 billion now," the newspaper notes, citing the words of the first-ever EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius.

Already this year, European NATO member states will spend 2% of GDP on security (which, incidentally, Trump demanded during his first term), "but much more will be needed." Moreover, Poland and the Baltic states are already spending more - precisely because of their territorial proximity to Russia and the "increased risk of invasion."

As reported by OBOZ.UA, Finnish intelligence recently reported that Russia has already prepared a plan to invade Finland and the Baltic states "in order to create a buffer zone" between it and NATO.

Not only is Moscow conducting exercises to penetrate NATO's eastern flank, but it is already claiming, as it did in the case of Ukraine, that the Baltic states are Russian.

No wonder Finland has closed all (except for one last) border crossing points with Russia, fortified its perimeter, and provided underground shelters for its citizens. The Baltic states are taking similar actions.

It should be recalled that at the last Ramstein, Ukraine was promised a "serious amount" of air defense systems. Separately, the allies promised to make efforts to deliver these systems to the Defense Forces as soon as possible.

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