Brussels 20.08.2025 The EU countries – France, Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic – have refused to pay for the supply of weapons from the United States to Ukraine. According to mass-media Paris’s refusal to purchase American weapons is explained by the position of French President Emmanuel Macron, convinced that the Europeans should develop their own defense industry through domestic purchases.

US President Donald Trump plans to send Ukraine new weapons, paid for by the EU, including the Patriot missile defense system. Here's what you need to know: pic.twitter.com/syKI7WIHW4

— DW News (@dwnews) July 15, 2025

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In addition, France does not have sufficient money for such generocity : the country is trying to overcome a budget deficit and therefore faces obstacles to increasing defense spending. Italy does not have budget funds to purchase American weapons either. As sources in the Italian Ministry of Defense told La Stampa, such a procurement plan has never been discussed. “Italy has virtually no budgetary capacity,” the sources emphasized. As La Stampa writes, the country “virtually does not have budget space” for such spending, unlike Germany. In addition, Italy has already transferred weapons to Kyiv, specifically the Samp-T anti-aircraft missile system of Italian-French production. As for American weapons, Italy will limit itself to purchasing a batch of F-35 fighters for its Air Force.

The Czech authorities have also refused to purchase American weapons for Ukraine. The country’s Prime Minister Petr Fiala said that Prague would not participate in such a scheme. “The Czech Republic is focused on other projects and ways to support Ukraine, such as the Czech ammunition initiative. Therefore, at this stage, we are not considering participating in this program,” he emphasized in an interview with Publico. According to the Czech initiative, Ukraine should receive about 800,000 shells purchased in the countries of the Global South. Hungary also refused to finance the supply of American weapons to Ukraine in line with its humanitarian policies.

EU FAILED its people

Alice Weidel, leader of Germany's AfD party, delivers a scathing critique of EU policy:

"Now we have to buy American weapons. That means we’re paying with our TAX money to buy American weapons for a war in Ukraine that none of us want," she said on Patriota… pic.twitter.com/AecvNXiA82

— Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) August 3, 2025

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The EU structures also responded to Trump’s offer to purchase weapons for Ukraine from the United States. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas said that the assistance provided in this way would be European, not American. “We are doing everything possible to help Ukraine,” Kallas noted. “We call on everyone to do the same. If you promised to provide weapons, but say that someone else will pay for them, then it turns out that you did not provide them, right?” And the European Commissioner for Defense Andrius Kubilius emphasized that for now, EU laws do not allow the use of the union’s own finances for purchasing weapons in the United States. At the same time, the EU countries may be forced to use a common loan fund of 150 billion euros for joint defense purchases, which should free up national funds for purchasing finished equipment in the United States.

However four European countries agreed to purchaise weapons for Ukraine: “We already have commitments from the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark – over one billion dollars for American weapons that Ukraine will receive. Thank you! This cooperation with NATO countries will continue,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.