This year, Ukraine provided more military aid to the United States than America did to Ukraine. This conclusion seems to follow from the news about Ukrainian military and equipment being sent to the Persian Gulf countries to intercept Iranian “Shahids.”
During the Davos Forum, the Ukrainian delegation gave a presentation in which an attack by “Shahids” on European cities—Paris, Brussels, and Davos itself—was simulated. Almost everyone ignored it back then. Indeed, who could have imagined that combat drones would attack Dubai? Although, as historian Niall Ferguson writes, the mere fact that “Shahids” were designed in Iran should have been enough.
The accumulation of combat experience and the development of proven military technologies are the advantages that Ukraine gains on the battlefield every day. We obtain them at a terrible price, but our ability to defend ourselves remains our main guarantee of security. If in mid-February 2022, to simulate the “Ukrainian threat,” Russian propaganda showed, on all channels, how Ukrainians allegedly shelled a shed in the woods of the Belgorod region, today an attack on another oil depot in the Krasnodar region might not even make the news.
Of course, it would be better if we never had this experience. War forces us to value a peaceful life differently. Therefore, we see a reevaluation of priorities not only among Ukrainians, who have lived in wartime conditions for many years but also in other countries—those that suddenly faced war or realize that a future war may be inevitable.
Funding the Ukrainian defense by our partners has never been charity. The only reason Russian tanks are now standing near Pokrovsk instead of Budapest or Bratislava is the Ukrainian military.
Regardless of how the war in Ukraine ends, a new European security architecture will be formed afterward, and Ukraine will play a key role in it. The involvement of Ukrainian specialists in the defense of the Persian Gulf countries highlights this once again.
