France and Czechia Say, No Thanks, To Pay Trump for U.S. Weapons to Ukraine
July 18—It took about 48 hours for the “rearm Ukraine” plan presented by President Donald Trump, with the beaming approval of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, July 14, to run up against the reality that the most aggressive proponents of Ukraine fighting to the last man are actually bankrupt, and/or, don’t want to fund the U.S. weapons. Trump’s plan is heavily centered on selling U.S. weapons to Europe’s hyperventilating warmongers via NATO, to then hand over to Ukraine.
Yesterday, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala told the Czech news portal Publico, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda: “Czechia is focusing on other projects and ways of helping Ukraine, for example, through the ammunition initiative. Therefore, we are not currently considering joining this project.” This is from one of Europe’s most aggressive supporters of getting weaponry to Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron, according to Politico, “will not join the initiative to buy U.S. weapons” because he has called for Europeans to build up their own defense production.
Today, Italy’s La Stampa reported, citing unnamed officials, that Italy’s budget doesn’t allow it to participate in Trump’s plan. It reported that the example of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz “will not be pursued by Italy.” Rather, Rome will opt out, “not only because our weapon systems already handed over to Kyiv have other technological configurations, but above all because—unlike Germany—the budget that Italy can allocate to such an operation is practically non-existent.”
RBC Ukraine reported that U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce “declined to disclose which NATO countries agreed to pay for American weapons for Ukraine.” She said, “I will not discuss certainly what we may or may not have negotiated [with NATO] or the diplomatic discussions.”
Germany and Norway have offered to buy, respectively, two and one Patriot missile systems. And both Denmark and Sweden have confirmed their readiness to join in. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that they have not yet decided whether to participate, though NATO Secretary General Rutte has said Finland wants to participate.
EU foreign policy representative Kaja Kallas both welcomed Trump’s plan and urged him to “share the burden” in terms of financing the deliveries. She then stumbled into the obvious attack on Trump, who is distrusted an almost hated by the European warmongers: “If we pay for these weapons—it’s our support, it’s European support. We are doing as much as we can to help Ukraine, and therefore the call is that everybody would do the same. It’s, you know, if you promise to give the weapons but say that somebody else is going to pay—it’s not really given by you, is it?”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova referred to Kallas’ dilemma: “Was Kaja starting to figure things out? Let’s help her: it’s a bit like being told to foot the bill for a meal someone else enjoys, only for them to end up dead afterward. Am I correct?”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about the Trump/NATO plan replied, according to RT, that it’s not easy to predict how effective the weapons financing scheme will be. Western Europe may appear ready “to spend countless amounts of money on purchasing weapons in order to further provoke the continuation of the war.” They are functioning with an “emotional state bordering on inadequacy”—so the unstable dynamics makes predicting rather difficult.