Political Will, Money, or Capabilities: Expert Explains Why Europe Is Not Ready to Provide Major Military Aid to Ukraine

Military expert Oleg Starikov explained that Europe's ground forces are not prepared for a large-scale war, as they have spent years training for short special operations, which is why their support for Ukraine remains limited, Politeka reports.

He shared this view on his channel.

According to the expert, at one point Europe adopted rather tough rhetoric. He recalls that initially, French President Macron and UK Prime Minister Starmer spoke about the possibility of deploying troops, but those discussions eventually faded, and no troops have been seen so far.

"It's a rather strange way of conducting political affairs. What do I mean by this? The ground forces of Britain and France are completely unprepared for large-scale wars like the Russia-Ukraine war. This is a regional war involving regular armies, not a special operation — they’re simply not ready for it. Naval forces might be ready, but not the ground forces. And a 60,000-strong expeditionary corps isn’t going to win a war like this," Starikov explains.

In the Black Sea, the expert notes, combat activity has stopped. As for air cover, that’s up to the United States — but they are pulling back. According to him, the root of the problem is that Europe has undergone demilitarization, and major European defense companies have been focused, under NATO doctrine, on fighting guerrillas and terrorists, not regular armies.

“That’s why all of Europe’s mobilization resources were geared toward wars lasting 1 to 3 months without deploying ground troops. This was clearly demonstrated during the 12-day Iran-Israel war — remote strikes, special forces, maybe Mossad, of course. But it was a classic special military operation, without ground troop deployment,” Starikov emphasizes.

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