Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marked a strategic paradigm shift in Europe: Russia is, in fact, a threat to the continent. Significant for years and revealed in broad daylight on February 24, 2022, this new deal has led the countries of the European Union and their allies across the Channel and across the Atlantic to support Kiev from the first day of the war. . This support was gradual and increasingly comprehensive: this year will have seen many firsts from partners in Kyiv.

From the last days of February 2022, European countries agreed to reduce their imports of Russian oil by 90% before the end of the year. On December 5, crude from Russia was banned in the European Union and EU and G7 companies were banned from reselling a barrel for more than $60 a barrel, in an effort to eat into Kremlin revenues. On February 4, 2023, it is the turn of all refined petroleum products to be banned in Europe.

Russian and Belarusian banks are also in the sights of Brussels, which decides to exclude the main ones from the Swift automated communication system, including Sberbank, the largest Russian institution. This exclusion, concluded on June 3 in a sixth round of sanctions, greatly complicates the links of Russian banks to the outside world and weighs on the Russian economy, according to observers.

To support Ukraine, the EU has become Ukraine’s second-largest aid provider behind the United States, primarily by being its top donor with over $30 billion (as of January 15, 2022 according to the Kiel Institute) granted mainly in the form of loans whose repayment is delayed. It is also the first time that the EU has purchased and delivered weapons to a third country.

Ukraine has also embarked on the process of joining the Union. The 27 members unanimously granted her candidate status on June 23, after a process of remarkable speed, a “historic moment” according to Charles Michel, the President of the European Council. This is only a first step for a country that still has a lot of work to do to meet the standards expected by Brussels: in addition to the war which weighs heavily on Kiev’s finances, the country was last in Europe in the ranking corruption before the war.

Eastern Europeans were the first donors to Ukraine, their Soviet weapons being compatible with Ukrainian equipment at the start of the war. At the same time, the Americans, British and Canadians began to deliver large quantities of equipment and small arms to kyiv. The Westerners, however, set certain limits: no long-range weapons (over 150 kilometers), no fighter planes, no heavy tanks. Gradually, the deliveries were more and more technological: after light or portable weapons, the Ukrainians received cannons (including French Caesars) and anti-aircraft defense tanks (German Gepards) at the beginning of the summer, and even a American Patriot air defense system at the end of the year.

From the beginning of the year 2023, kyiv begins to ask more and more urgently for combat tanks, to replace its losses. In an effort to avoid escalation with threatening Russia on this subject, Westerners are reluctant to deliver such firepower to kyiv. On January 4, France opened the ball with the announcement of the delivery of AMX-10 RC armored reconnaissance vehicles (cannon wheel). The United Kingdom is the first country to offer its heavy tank, the Challenger 2, on January 14. Ten days later, the United States followed with their M1 Abrams, the Germans immediately agreed to transfer some of their Leopard 2s to Ukraine. chase.

Berlin is very dependent on gas for its energy production. Before the outbreak of war, Germany was especially deprived of Russian gas: half of its imports. As of February 24, the Nord Stream 2 project, which was to double the pipeline linking Russia to Germany, was stopped by the latter. In August, Russia definitively cut off the tap to Europe, pushing Berlin to find an alternative. The Germans had anticipated this cut in early February, when Moscow had been amassing troops on the Ukrainian border for months: the authorities quickly set up floating terminals capable of accommodating foreign LNG carriers, American or Qatari for example. In December, Germany inaugurates its first hard terminal, its second in January 2023, and the country declares being completely weaned from Russian gas on January 19.

On the military front, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was quick to show a profound reversal of his country’s defense policy: on February 27, he announced that Germany would invest an additional 100 billion euros in its army. In the coming years. Thus, in 2022, Germany has reached the 2% of GDP devoted to defense that NATO has been asking for for years from its members.

While Emmanuel Macron denounced a lethargic organization shortly before the outbreak of war, NATO reacted immediately on February 24. Reinsurance devices on the Alliance’s eastern flank were triggered, as with the sending of troops to Romania in a French-led framework. Generally speaking, NATO countries take advantage of industrial standards in terms of armaments to make their arms deliveries to Ukraine more efficient.

The crisis was also the trigger to launch the accession process of Finland and Sweden, which broke with their neutral status and applied simultaneously on May 18. At the beginning of July, their candidacy was accepted and opened for ratification by the 30 member countries. A year after the outbreak of the war, only Hungary and Turkey have not yet ratified this integration. Generally speaking, the organization has regained all the legitimacy of its origins since Russia once again clearly emerged as the enemy of Europe.

Consult our file: War in Ukraine