Europe needs to make great strides in increasing the capacity of its defense industry, and can only do this by working together within the EU and with Ukraine, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren told the Kyiv Independent on March 20.
The ammunition initiative, launched by Czechia in February amid increasingly dire reports concerning Ukraine’s munitions shortages on the front and involving the Netherlands, is an example of such cooperation. It’s not the first time the Dutch have joined forces with other European countries to provide support to Ukraine.
As a leading member of the fighter jet coalition, and now a member of the Latvian-led drone coalition for Ukraine, the Netherlands is utilizing its edge in technology to help Ukraine.
A month on from an interview at the Munich Security Conference, the Kyiv Independent sat down with Ollongren in Kyiv to discuss the Netherlands’ contributions to Ukraine’s fight in the air, on the ground, and at an EU level.
Yep. I hate to say it, but I think it’s time for the EU to prepare for things to get worse. I hate US-centric thought, but it does seem like the outcome of this year’s election in the US will be the determiner for whether or not Ukraine has the means to keep fighting.
Should the US abandon Ukraine, the EU is the only remaining support they have against Russian expansionism, with the consequence being Russia dramatically increasing the size of its border with the EU, and it probably won’t stop there.
It’s because the people of Ukraine wanted to be more involved participants with the EU that all of this even started happening in the first place (the Euromaidan protests in 2013 followed shortly by Russia’s decision to annex Crimea). If the EU wants a lasting ally against Russia, now is the time.
As an American who has fully turned their back on the country, I wish more than most that I could just never think about the place again - but it’d be like rejecting heliocentrism. The sun is too big to totally ignore, even if it causes skin cancer and can blind you.