He who pays the piper calls the tune. The US has borrowed over $100 billion to fight this proxy war. We not only supply the weapons and ammo, but also, we pay the salaries and pensions of the Ukrainian government, including the soldiers.
So yes we have a say in this war. It is the Golden Rule: He who has the gold, rules.
Slightly dated breakdown of aid committed to Ukraine by country, here:
Note that the info is for aid committed as of 11/20/2022, not aid actually sent or received, which lags considerably.
I don’t think we’ve committed an additional $49 billion since November.
OTOH, the figures @ the link do not, I believe, include for example the projected $13 billion over the next 10 to 15 years to increase munitions production. (That is clearly part of the funding package passed in reaction to this war, but I don’t have ANY problem with that $13 billion — we obviously are weak when it comes to production of std. tech and mid-tech munitions.)
As opposed to, say, the EU (Commission & Council which does not include individual countries’ aid), which has sent considerably more money to Ukraine than weapons, and considerably more non-military aid than the USD, the USA has sent mostly weapons and related goods. Most has been older equipment* which is not only already paid for, it has in the past done it’s primary job as a reserve and deterring a major attack on us or our allies. Point being that most of it would be replaced anyway (hopefully some with newer and better weapons) in coming years.
*The most notable exception would be the HIMARS launchers, but, so far we’ve sent under 5% of our inventory (which is also under half our HIMARS deliveries received in 2022, and ~ 1/5th our order for 2023.)
Note that in total, EU countries’ commitments of “all aid” to Ukraine now exceeds the US (as it should.)
My preference would be that the Euro’s buy the weapons from us and send them on to Ukraine, but, that does decrease our leverage and increase some risks.
Looking at it on a % of GDP basis, we find that the US at the time of the article at the link was tenth at 0.2%. Germany is disappointing at 0.14%, and France is just despicable at 0.05%. Estonia leads that list at 1.1%, Latvia is at 0.9%, and Poland is at 0.5% (and arming to the teeth.)
In any event, real cost to the USA of aid to Ukraine including current commitments is presently nowhere near $100 billion. It might well get there by the end of 2023 — we shall see. Whether the Euro countries (to include Canada, BTW) maintain an aid total over ours we shall also see.
“The US has borrowed over $100 billion to fight this proxy war.”
Proxy war on Ukraine’s behalf is a slander and a lie. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was an exapansion of the PROXY WAR Putin started in Eastern Ukraine years earlier. THAT PROXY WAR was intended to soften (sap) Ukraine, militarily and institutionally and prepare the field for the full invasion, whenever Putin thought he could get away with it. It was an unprovoked invasion, period.