Ukraine’s Demand: Maintain 800,000-strong Military Post-War, Western Allies to Fund for at Least a Decade
Zelenskyy appears to be exploiting Europe in ever-new ways.
On the 11th, Agence France-Presse cited Ukrainian sources stating that Kyiv has requested the maintenance of an 800,000-person military force after the war, and demanded that Western allies provide financial support for this force for at least ten years.
The report indicated that Ukraine presented this demand during ongoing trilateral talks among the United States, Russia, and Ukraine, as part of its broader proposal for a security assurance mechanism.
Naturally, Russia is unlikely to accept such terms. Yet Ukraine’s insistence on relying entirely on Western funding for an 800,000-strong military over the next decade underscores a clear calculation: it assumes Europe and the Democratic Party will not withdraw support from Kyiv, enabling Kyiv to make high-stakes demands with little risk of pushback.
Still, the request is not entirely implausible. In fact, equipping and maintaining a trained Ukrainian military as a potential "European force" has long been one of the European Union’s strategic considerations—aimed at reducing dependency on U.S. military guarantees, particularly under a potential Trump administration. However, the EU’s own proposals have never explicitly stated that such a force would be fully self-sustaining.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1881560016863627/
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