NATO’s Afghan National Army Trust Fund, worth about $3.4 billion, has been urged to go to Ukraine, when the trust fund is liquidated back to NATO countries. Reallocating the trust funds to Ukraine is something most NATO countries agree would be the best use of the funds. Not every NATO country has decided what to do with their share of the returned trust funds but most countries agree that Ukraine needs to funds to continue to battle Russian President Vladimir Putin. If there’s any consensus in NATO, it’s that Putin must not be allowed to win the Ukraine War, largely because they fear Putin moving from Ukraine to former Soviet satellites, especially in the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Ukraine has an insatiable appetite for U.S. and NATO funds, spending its national GDP to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity from a naked Russian land grab.
NATO officials discussed what to do with the Afghan National Army Trust Funds, now that Ukraine is embroiled in what looks like an unending war with the Russian Federation. Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky has escalated the war using predator drones to attack deep inside Russia at its airbases. NATO officials know that the Afghan funds must be returned to individual NATO members to decide how to spend the cash. Many NATO countries have stretched their budgets to the breaking point during a period of inflation and slow economic growth to help Ukraine. So, when it comes to the Afghan funds, it’s only logical for some NATO states to donate the funds back to Ukraine. Kiev has asked its NATO partners to contribute more funds to beating back Putin’s invasion. Many NATO countries seek to neutralize Russia’s war aims, worried about future encroachment.
White House has given Ukraine $19.7 billion since the Feb. 24 war started, far greater than anything given by the EU and NATO. No one thinks the Afghan Trust Funds are enough to help Ukraine’s battle with the Russian Federation but are inclined to recycle those funds back to Ukraine. President Joe Biden, 80, urged NATO countries to contribute to Ukraine with the Afghan Trust Funds. “It’s almost impossible to calculate Ukraine’s actual needs both in terms of military or humanitarian aid because the nature of the war is so rapidly evolving,” said Samuel Charap, a Russia expert at the Rand Corporation. “Every little bit helps,” Charap said, hoping the NATO partners would allocate the Afghan funds to Ukraine. NATO has a Comprehensive Assistance Package established in 2016, two years after Putin seized the Crimean Peninsula. NATO countries seem open to using the Afghan Funds for Ukraine.
No one in NATO knows what, if anything, individual members will do with the Afghan Funds once returned to member states. Some countries like the Netherlands have contributed $134 million to the Afghan Account and show some interest in spending at least some of the cash on Ukraine. Dutch Foreign Ministry Spokesman Casper Soetekouw said his country wants to contribute more to Ukraine. “The Netherlands, like other allies, has used the money it received back from NATO’s from NATO’s Afghan Trust Fund until now to contribute to NATO’s Ukraine CAP Fund,” said NATO spokesman Oana Lungescu, saying the cash is focused on non-lethal assistance. Germany and Norway, at a NATO meeting in Romania, said they “made further commitments” to Ukraine. Norway plans to return some $115 million to the national treasury, but has no qualms about giving more to Ukraine.
NATO countries have limited budget resources to contribute like the U.S. to Ukraine. Most NATO countries want to contribute more to Ukraine but still need the Afghan Trust Funds returned to their budgets before deciding how much more to contribute to Ukraine. NATO countries know that Ukraine has a bottomless pit of cash needs to pay government salaries and fund the war effort. Lithuania signaled that it would return $2.8 million in Afghan Funds, spending more on purchasing equipment for Kiev. “We haven’t had any political talks yet about the future of that money, but we’ve been helping Ukraine in many ways with military aid, financially, and we are ready to support Ukraine in the future,” said the Reagan National Defense Forum in California. Finland said it is readying its 11th package of funds for Ukraine but wouldn’t disclose the exact contributions.
Whatever NATO allies give back to Ukraine, there’s limitations based on budget constraints, even with Afghan Trust Funds returned to NATO member states. When it comes to contributing to the war against the Russian Federation, no one has contributed more in humanitarian and lethal aid than the United States. Unlike NATO members, Biden decided to fight a proxy war against the Russian Federation, tossing U.S.-Russian diplomacy under the bus. “The main focus now is on supporting Ukraine, ensuring that President Putin doesn’t win, but that Ukraine prevails as sovereign nation in Europe,” said NATO Secretary-Genaral Jens Stotlenberg in Romania last week. Stotenberg knows that Ukraine’s sovereign is not at stake in the Ukraine War. It’s about negotiating a deal that protects Russian interests while preserving Ukraine’s sovereignty. Peace is not mutually exclusive to Ukraine’s sovereignty.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
