Europe’s political leaders have been slow to recognise financial reality of long wars
Ukraine needs western munitions badly but it remains unclear how much more artillery the UK is prepared to produce
Two years and two months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine started the biggest war in Europe since 1945, and Rishi Sunak has announced that the UK's own defence industry should be placed on a war footing". Speaking on a trip to Poland, the prime minister noted that one of the central lessons of the Ukraine conflict was the need for deeper stockpiles and for the arms industry to replenish them more quickly".
Ukraine's leaders will be too polite to point it out but this has been evident on the battlefield for some time, although Sunak is not the only European leader to take time to grasp the scale of what is required to fight off sustained Russian aggression, the bombing of civilians and infrastructure every day. With US military aid on pause for four months, and only now poised to restart, the combined result is that Russia is gaining ground.
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