Zelensky stood at the mic and did not mince it. He wants the West to carve out 0.25% of their GDP and wire it to Ukraine’s weapons factories. Not relief. Not grain. Not debt forgiveness. Just hard cash for military gear. Call it solidarity. Call it strategy. Either way, the meter’s running.
The ask looks small. It’s not. For Washington, that demand lands north of $70 billion annually. Berlin would owe $25 billion. London clears $18 billion. Tokyo kicks in $13 billion. Add France, Italy, and Canada and you’re crossing $150 billion per year. It’s a second war chest stapled onto existing defense budgets.
Kyiv says it’s about speed. The pitch is that Ukraine can build, test, and field faster than NATO’s traditional suppliers. Zelensky’s team rolled out the “Build with Ukraine” initiative this month. It’s not fluff. German officials already toured a new munitions line outside Lviv. Contracts are in the works with Denmark, Norway, the UK, Canada, and Lithuania. Deliverables include drones, artillery shells, and portable air defenses.
Ukraine claims it produces 40% of its own military gear now. The goal is 80%. Foreign buyers would plug the gap, and foreign taxpayers would grease the assembly lines. The drones used in recent strikes on Russian airfields came from Ukrainian factories. Kyiv is marketing that as proof of capability.
Timing matters. Trump walked out early from the G7 summit. Zelensky didn’t get his meeting. He’s betting on a NATO audience next week in The Hague. Russia is still clawing forward in Donbas. American aid pipelines are clogging. Zelensky needs a new model. This is it.
No NATO country has agreed yet. No parliamentary vote has locked it in. But the language is softening. Officials in Brussels call it a “long-term commitment mechanism.” The EU foreign affairs chief called the request “constructive.” Nothing’s signed, but the door isn’t shut either.
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