On Wednesday, Oct. 11, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with 50 defense leaders from nations around the globe to discuss continued support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
This meeting comes as progress in the conflict in Ukraine has slowed down considerably compared to the massive progress made in 2022 with the recapture of Kharkiv by Ukrainian forces. This lack of progress has caused some worry about waning support for Ukraine, which has generally been very strong from much of Europe and the U.S.
One major country whose support for Ukraine has been shifting is Poland, which initially helped take in millions of Ukrainian refugees. This lowering of support has come from conservative Polish people who are now less willing to aid the Ukrainians who came to Poland for safety, either because they feel they can no longer afford it or because they no longer feel like they should help the Ukrainians in Poland.
The country’s politicians have also been less willing to send aid to Ukraine. Instead, they see it as better to spend money on their military instead of sending weapons to Ukraine. The movement away from support for Ukraine by Poland is interesting as one would think they have a common shared enemy in Russia. Still, that shared adversary no longer seems to translate to full support for Ukraine.
One of the major fears that brought about this meeting is that due to the recent resurgence in the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Some suggest this could decrease aid to Ukraine as aid is instead given to Israel.
Zelenskyy seems to be attempting to counter any fears about a lack of support by saying there is a “very understandable volume” of arms and ammunition that the West can offer for Israel and Ukraine and that one should not have to receive less aid for the other to get aid.
Within this conference, the U.S. reaffirmed its commitments to Ukraine, with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announcing an additional $200 million in aid to Ukraine for anti-tank and anti-drone weapons along with additional ammunition.
This comes as the U.S. has given more military aid to Israel in the form of ammunition and interceptors to bolster Israel’s Iron Dome defense system meant to shoot down rocket attacks from Hamas. This comes after the recent attack by Hamas, killing over a thousand Israelis.
Zelenskyy believes Russia will benefit from this perceived need to split support between Ukraine and Israel, stating, “I think also Russia’s counting on it, on dividing support.” If there is reduced aid to Ukraine due to the conflict with Israel and Palestine, this could impact Ukraine as it has already been making slow progress on retaking territory.
Due to the recent removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House, any attempts to pass additional aid through the House will be affected. This is bad news for Ukraine, which needs long-range missile systems if it is to take additional large sections of land back from Russia, according to Zelenskyy.
