Ukraine has quickly devolved into a bottomless money pit for the United States as the Russian invasion continues unabated despite the U.S. sending about $54 billion to the war-torn nation.
And if Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has his way, the U.S. and its European allies will fork over an additional $750 billion to help Ukraine rebuild, Euractiv reported.
Zelenskyy, speaking Monday at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano, Switzerland, insisted that rebuilding Ukraine was the duty of the entire world, so everyone should give as much money as possible.
“The reconstruction of Ukraine is not a local project, is not a project of one nation, but a common task of the entire democratic world — all countries, all countries who can say they are civilized,” Zelenskyy said via video message, according to The Washington Post.
“Restoring Ukraine means restoring the principles of life, restoring the space of life, restoring everything that makes humans humans.”
The former comedian then laughably claimed “reconstruction of Ukraine is the biggest contribution to the support of global peace.”
Zelesnkyy’s entitlement complex and tone-deaf arrogance are exceeded only by his boundless ignorance of how the world works.
They’re also totally unsympathetic to the multiple crises engulfing other countries, including the U.S., which is struggling with historic inflation, terrifying crime waves, skyrocketing national debt and daily border invasions.
From March 2020 to June 2022, the US added the same amount of debt ($7 trillion) as the previous 215 years.
Via @Heritage pic.twitter.com/cJ86Rg5mhG
— Blockworks (@Blockworks_) July 1, 2022
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, who attended the posh conference, estimated the cost of rebuilding his country at $750 billion.
?? government develops the digital map of Ukraine, where we record all the damage done by ru aggression. Direct infrastructural losses are worth over $100 billion, and full-fledged Ukraine recovery plan is estimated at $750 billion. pic.twitter.com/hCn2AcD9kK
— Denys Shmyhal (@Denys_Shmyhal) July 4, 2022
On Thursday, Shmyhal gushed that Ukraine had received $2 billion in pledges since Monday.
Wow, only $748 billion more to go to reach the target.
The government team attracted in #Lugano almost $2 billion support for #Ukraine from partners. Grateful to the @WorldBank, @EBRD, @EIB, the governments of Sweden ??, Switzerland ??, the United Kingdom ??, business and NGOs. United in defence – united in recovery!
— Denys Shmyhal (@Denys_Shmyhal) July 7, 2022
Just three days before the conference (which was essentially a fundraiser), embattled President Joe Biden authorized an additional $820 million in military aid to Ukraine, which is roughly the size of Texas and has a population of about 43 million.
To do this, the administration took weapons and equipment from the U.S. military stockpile to give to Ukraine to prolong its seemingly unwinnable war against Russia.
It was the 14th time in the past five months the United States has drawn from its own reserve inventory to bolster Ukraine’s self-defense efforts.
“Pursuant to a delegation of authority from the President, I am authorizing our fourteenth drawdown of arms and equipment from U.S. Department of Defense inventories for Ukraine’s self-defense since August 2021 of up to $50 million,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced in a July 1 statement.
“This authorization, along with the Defense Department’s parallel announcement of $770 million in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding, will bring total U.S. military assistance to Ukraine to more than $6.92 billion since Russia launched its brutal, unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24,” he said.
Should the United States send further billions of dollars to aid Ukraine?
In case it’s not clear that the United States will continue to give money and resources to Ukraine no matter how pointless the efforts, Blinken declared that “our commitment to the Ukrainian people will not waver, and we will continue to stand united with Ukraine.”
Ironically, the secretary of state had started his statement by proclaiming the United States remains committed to the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, he and Biden have done next to nothing to ensure the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the United States, whose southern border is barraged daily by unvetted armies of illegal aliens.
Here’s the bottom line: It’s terrible that Russia invaded Ukraine. The United States and numerous Western European nations responded by imposing severe sanctions on Russia and showering Ukraine with billions of dollars and mass deliveries of weapons.
Despite this intervention from the world’s richest superpowers, Russia has not curbed its invasion, and there’s no sign it will do so soon.
Moreover, Zelesnkyy had numerous opportunities to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he didn’t take action to end this conflict.
While we can be sympathetic that Ukraine was invaded in the first place, once the conflict escalated, it was up to Ukraine to resolve it. No one can do this for the country.
Imagine if a bully started beating up one of your acquaintances. The bully tells your acquaintance he’ll stop pummeling him if he says “Uncle” and gives him lunch money.
Your acquaintance refuses to give up but begs for help. You and others give him sticks and stones to defeat the bully, but the bully is undeterred.
Short of you jumping in to beat up the bully yourself, there’s nothing more you can do.
Similarly, the U.S. has done all it can short of igniting World War III by declaring war on Russia.
It is time to focus on fixing our own problems and let Ukraine manage itself. Frankly, we have bigger fish to fry.
