Dubbed “Rearm Europe,” the remarks from the European Commission’s president came hours after President Donald Trumpsuspended all U.S. military aid to Ukraine, widening the gulf between Washington and Kyiv and going against the fresh commitments of support from Europe for Ukraine in recent days.
“I do not need to describe the grave nature of the threats that we face, or the devastating consequences that we will have to endure if those threats would come to pass,” von der Leyen told reporters.
One difference is that the US contributions have largely been equipment that was close to being decommissioned, which costs money on its own.
This does not make that contributions less important, but should cost the taxpayer much less and was already allocated by the military budget.