So according to this article, Ukraine has not received only 140 billion from usa, they have also received another or greater part from europe? Yet they have made zero progress and reclaiming any ground. Unreal.
“Get your money for nothing...”
First, a great deal of that money stretches out into the future, 2027, etc.
2nd, a lot of the money, esp. from the Euro’s, is not in weapons / military support.
3rd, try this comparison on for size: So far, US aid to Ukraine (all forms, on a yearly basis) is running around 0.25% of US GDP (2023 estimate for GDP). In WW2, in 1945, the US spent 40%(!!!) of its GDP on defense expenditures.
4th, Ukraine has reclaimed about 50% of the ground it lost at the beginning of the war.
Progress on the ground this summer was small. That is largely due to US promised weapons’ deliveries being delayed by months, giving Russia time to dig in and harden defenses. That one is on us. OTOH, shaping of the battlefield is looking much better. Russia has lost more ships and a sub (and 2 highly valuable drydocks) in the Black Sea, forcing it to pull back much of the remaining Black Sea Fleet. IF Ukraine gets a reasonable supply of ATACMS, say, 100 in the next 6 months, Ukraine can pretty well cut logistics to Crimea. Then, the game will truly be afoot. (To be mentioned is the auspicious debut of ATACMS a couple days ago. This will force Russia to further pull back air attack resources.) F-16’s will arrive, in modest numbers, next year. That will greatly boost Ukraine’s ability to launch standoff ATG missile attacks. Russian logistics will be under severe strain...
Russia can respond of course, with a massive push toward Kyiv. That should require about 1 million new soldiers. The pressure that puts on Russian resources will be enormous. How much of that pressure Russia can sustain is, IMO, anybody’s guess. Pro-Russians point out to the enormous suffering of Russians in WW2. Pro-Westerners point out to Russia’s exit from Afghanistan.