By Lateef Adegbite
Those who thinks that President Vladimir Putin of Russia is the one deliberately prolonging the Ukraine war may have to do a rethink.
The European Leaders and Mark Rutte, a former Prime Minister of Netherlands and now Secretary General, European Union, EU, have been identified in diplomatic circles as the ones pushing Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian to continue the fight against Russia.
Ony recently, Representatives of Germany, France, Britain, US, UK and Netherlands, had met with Zelensky in Kyiv to plot the next line of action against Russia. The six western Leaders Representatives, including the EU, Secretary General, were said to have told Zelenskyy that they were in Kyiv ‘’to encourage and support him to sustain the war against Russia and assured him of Europe support.
Zelenskyy, who had described the meeting with the Representatives of the European Leaders, including that of the US and UK, in Kyiv, had described the gathering as ‘’symbolic’’ and had expressed his appreciation to NATO support.
He was said to have singled out Germany, US, Uk, and France, particular, for their support, both in cash and supplies of weapons. He had recalled that that the Germany Chancellor, Frederich Merz, had already supplied the country with patriot systems, and the US, for weapon procurement through the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, PURL, initiative as well as UK, alongside France for providing the country with cruise missiles.
The British PM, Keir Starmer, may not have contributed to the PURL, NATO’s fund, but it was said to have supplied storm shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine that could strike deep into Russia, without being intercepted by any defense. missiles. The missiles were said to have been supplied by the British Prime Mister to replenish Ukraine’s stockpiles ahead of the winter, when Russia is expected to intensify its attacks.
Sergio Meloni, the Italian Prime Minister, who may not have sent any Representative to the Kyiv meeting with Zelensky with other European Leaders Representatives to discuss the Ukraine war and the way forward may have bowed to pressures from the German Chancellor, President Emmanuel Macron of France, who had concluded plans to send 7,000 soldiers to Ukraine in 2026, to support Zelenskyy in the fight against Russia, was said to have delivered some military equipment procured under the PURL initiative to Ukraine .
At the onset of the Ukraine war, Rome had opposed joining the PURL initiative, on the grounds that Ukraine already had sufficient channels for financial support and to acquire weaponry and therefore, does not need any aid from the country.
Given the Germany Chancellor’s assurance to Zelenskyy to support him prosecute Ukraine war until victory is won, may have followed why he had followed the footsteps of the Swedish PM, Ulf Kristersson , Mette Frederiksen of Demark, Jonas Gahr Store of Norway and Maria Dick Schoof, PM, of Netherlands, to launch the NATO’s PURL, initiative, with a funding package of US $500 million, for the purchase of military equipment and ammunitions for Ukraine, described by Rutte, the EU cum NATO, Secretary General as ‘’a strong demonstration of Germany’s enduring commitment to Ukraine’s defense’’.
The cumulative total contributions of the five European countries under the NATO’s PURL, initiative according to Diplomatic sources based on the $500 million funding package by each of the countries, was put at US $2,5 billion designed to meet Ukraine’s most urgent operational requirements with equipment and ammunitions sourced from the US.
The European countries may have taken the bold initiative to reduce the burden of the Ukraine war on the US, which President Donald Trump had said is already telling its economy. Describing the eastern European war as the most expensive crisis yet to be handled by the US, over the last three years, the US President, who could not hide his feelings had said categorically that ‘’it is destroying and bankrupting’’ the North American country.
Even the Canadian government was said to have contributed US $6.5 million to the NATO’s PURL initiative. Rutte, a former PM, of Netherland, until he vacated office was said to have earmarked billions of US, dollars for support for the Ukraine war through 2023.
The country’s new PM, Schoof, had said that 700 euros from PURL funds was invested in the production of drones for Ukraine. The PM, had disclosed that 3.5 billion euros, equivalent of US $3.8 billion, had been set aside to continue its support for the Ukraine war in 2026.
The EU, Leadership may have shown that that they do not want the Ukraine-Russian war to end as they were said to have repeatedly met in Brussels, Capital of Belgium to discuss further backing for Ukraine including the use of the Russian frozen assets to provide US $163.27 billion to war torn country as the World Bank/ IMF, multilateral financial institutions are not ready to risk given loan to the country believed to have lost the battle to Russia.
A new report recently published by the US government, had warned that the sanctions, weapons supply aid and lost trade deals lost due to the Ukraine could have cost the country over $520 billion, if quantified as it had threatened its oil deals and even shrunken the global dollar dominance.
He noted that the Ukraine war had pushed the duo of Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and his Chinese Counterpart, XI Jinping, of China to work closely together to push to replace the dollars in international transactions, heightening fears that this might lead to a collapse of American economic powers soon.
Economic experts fear that with the rising US debt, inflation, and shrinking exports due to the Ukraine war, even the Europe and the UK, are not faring much better as the countries were said to have lost US over $46 billion, with the situation in France and UK, described as worrisome.
There indications that BP. Shell and Uniper, and other Multinational Companies which are no longer finding easy had written off billion of US dollars, to scores of Customs that could not settle their bills because of the down turn of their economy to retain the customers believing their economies would eventual improve as they struggle to find their way back to the Sahel region to do what they used to doing : mining mineral resources and rare earth elements at little or no benefit to the people but to the Europeans.
Past and present French Leaders who had made much of the revenue from the 14 former colonies in the West and Central African subregions, particular, the Sahel States of Burkina Faso, Niger Republic and Mali, endowed with rich mineral resources and rare earth elements including Lithium, gold, manganese and uranium, between 190 and now, may have bitten more than they can chew.
President Mcron, may have been exposed that France is nothing without African when the former colonizer, was kicked out by Capt. Ibrahim Traore, of Burkina Faso, Generals Abdurahmane Tchiani of Niger and Assimi Goita of Mali, to take over the management of their respective country’s mineral resources just as the junta Leaders cancelled all colonial deals with France.
Trump’s kitchen Cabinet, who may have read the handwriting on the wall that ‘’the Ukraine crisis is no longer about freedom but about money, markets and the future of the global order’’, were said to have made the US, President to understand that ‘’every month the Ukraine war drags on , the Asian country of China grows stronger and the American and the European countries’ economies , including that of the UK, weakens’’.
They were said to have sounded it loud and clear that if the Ukraine war doesn’t end soon, the next casualty in the collapse of its economy might be the US, itself.
This may have informed why the US president who had been under intense pressure from the European Leaders to sell the US Tomahawk, long-range missile to the EU, and which in turn would sell to Ukraine and who had met with Zelenskyy, on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, had closed the chapter to avoid escalating the over three years conflict to save lives.
This may have angered Zelenskyy that he accused Trump of being ‘’afraid of Putin. Trump, who could not take it from Zelenskyy said to have advised him to go and lean on how to talk to elderly people like him.
Putin, the Russian President who now wants to end the Ukraine war on the advice of President Trump of the US, was said to have demanded that Zelenskyy withdraw his men from Luhansk, Donnetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, where it currently occupies 80% of the regions including cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk. He was said to have insisted that Ukraine must not be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon, let alone join NATO.
President Trump, whose country’s economy is currently being adversely affected with the funding of the war appears to have thrown his weight behind Putin to take the annexed Ukraine regions to end the war but whether Zelenskkyy , the EU and the European Leaders would agree to the demands remain to be seen. However, the Ukraine Members of Parliament, MP, who are not happy seeing Kyiv, and other Ukraine cities turn to rubles and some top government officials would want Zelenskyy to allow Russia, take the annexed regions that had been captured whose residents speaks mostly Russia to end the over three year-old war and plan for the reconstruction of the country that would gulp over US $600 billion.
