Europe Wants to Arm Ukraine, but It’s Losing a Race Against Time

May 10, 2025 - By 4idiotz

Table of Contents

Article Summary

President Trump’s reluctance to continue supporting Ukraine with military aid has led to European nations struggling to supply Ukraine with the weapons it needs. Ukraine’s Parliament recently approved a deal to give the US a share of future revenue from natural resources, including minerals, in order to keep open the possibility of continued shipments of American arms and other military assistance. This comes as Ukraine’s military aid from the Biden administration will run out by summer and Ukrainian forces are running low on long-range missiles, artillery, and ballistic air defense systems.

What This Means for You

European nations are trying to increase weapons production, but it may take a decade to get assembly lines up to speed.
Ukraine may lose territory if it is forced to retreat due to lack of adequate weapons supply.
The weapons supply is not just a matter of life and death for Ukraine’s soldiers, but also affects the cease-fire agreement being negotiated.
Europe will continue to send military assistance to Ukraine, but much of it is for producing or procuring weapons in the years to come, not immediately.
Ukraine is already producing billions of drones each year and getting better at rationing its Patriot air defense missiles.
Future outlook: Europe may not be able to backfill most of what the United States had provided in weapons to Ukraine in the short term, and Ukrainian forces may have to fill the gap with existing resources.

Original Post

Since President Trump took office vowing to pull back U.S. support for Ukraine, European leaders have worried that they would be unable to supply Ukraine with the weapons it needs. So far, it looks like they were right.

The so-called coalition of the willing of European nations backing Ukraine has struggled to get materiel to its battlefields in the time since Mr. Trump made clear that Europe needed to shoulder more of the load for Ukraine’s security and its own.

In an interview shortly after the vote, Mr. Chernev said Ukrainian forces were running low on long-range missiles, artillery and, above all, ballistic air defense systems — the majority of which are manufactured in the United States, according to an analysis by the

By summer, military aid approved under the Biden administration will run out, and Mr. Trump appears reluctant to renew it.

“He told me that he needs more weapons, but he’s been saying that for three years,” Mr. Trump said after meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine last month in Rome. (The Trump administration has allowed Ukraine to buy some small-dollar arms directly from American manufacturers, but not with U.S. government assistance.)

Allies in Europe have collectively given about half of the estimated $130 billion in military support provided to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022. The U.S. sent the rest.