The EU must seize Russia’s frozen assets, Maria Malmer Stenergard believes, because any other solution would be unfair to Ukraine’s biggest backers.

Nordic countries can’t keep taking on a disproportionate share of supporting Ukraine, Sweden’s foreign minister warned in an interview with POLITICO.

“A few countries take almost all of the burden,” Maria Malmer Stenergard said on her way into a gathering of foreign ministers in Brussels. “That is not fair and it’s not sustainable in the long run.”

She added: “The fact that the Nordic countries, with less than 30 million people, we provide for one-third of the military support that the NATO countries, with almost 1 billion people, provide this year … This is not sustainable. It’s not reasonable in any way. And it says a lot about what the Nordics do — but it says even more about what the others don’t do.”

  • ameancow@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    While I gnash my teeth daily that the US isn’t doing more to support Ukraine, I do not believe for a moment that Europe will allow Ukraine to fall, because if Ukraine falls to Russia, along with all its resources and production capacity, Estonia is next. Armenia is next. Georgia is next. Latvia is next and all the other former USSR territories, and then Poland and the wealth of Europe will start looking real tasty to Putin.

    No NATO/EU country wants Ukraine to fall, and they will pour every resource into defending it.

    They just think it would be nice if you know, the US could fucking chip in a little, being the wealthiest nation on Earth and apparently we have SOOOOO much money freed up since we decided to let poor people die and we’re not funding space missions or vaccines anymore.

  • neidu3@sh.itjust.works
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    5 hours ago

    Nordic citizen here. As much as I agree with the sentiment, I’d happily pay more to have an unlubed dildo of consequence hypersonically delivered to the Kremlin.

    We can tiptoe around russia, hoping they’ll play nice any day now, or give a slap that won’t be forgotten.

    Lesson:
    Russia used to do these “mistaken navigation” into Turkish airspace all the time. Until turkey shot down an encroaching aircraft. Suddenly russian pilots got a lot better at navigation.

    • lepinkainen@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Russia only respects force.

      They will push and prod and poke and if you’re soft they get bolder and bolder. Like a school bully.

      But kick them in the nuts real hard once and they’ll back down

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    It’s really disappointing that so many countries don’t help more. The average being only a tenth of Nordic countries per capita!

    • tirednapstablook@lemmings.world
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      7 hours ago

      If Ukraine loses, what would that mean for the countries that did help?

      Would it have just been a waste of money for them that also resulted in more deaths for Ukrainians? Yeah, Russians died too, but was that worth it?

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        1 hour ago

        The Russian economy is collapsing now. So there is no way Ukraine will lose this war.
        But supporting Ukraine will help them get their territory back, and make Ukraine win faster.

      • lepinkainen@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        Yes.

        Every dead Russian man of military age isn’t available to attack my country.

        They’ll use their future indoctrinated Putin Youth for that, but it takes a decade for them to grow up still.

        • tirednapstablook@lemmings.world
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          5 hours ago

          I see. Give Ukrainians weapons so they fight a hopeless war while Western troops do drills.

          Maybe the Ukrainians would have been better off if they just surrendered. They don’t seem to be getting much out of being cannon fodder for the West.

            • tirednapstablook@lemmings.world
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              4 hours ago

              As opposed to what’s happening now?

              At least they could adapt to their new country or flee with their lives. Instead, thousands of them are dead and the war is still lost.

              But they made the West happy, right? That’s all that matters?

              • lepinkainen@lemmy.world
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                2 hours ago

                Russia is literally taking children from their parents in the occupied region and “re-educating” them to be Proper Russians

                You think that would stop if Putin controls ALL of Ukraine? He’d just let them be?

  • verdi@feddit.org
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    9 hours ago

    contributions = 1/x where x= distance to Russian borders + Support for the Iraqi invasion + Spying on EU leaders on behalf of the USA.