The fact that the usually very peaceful Nordic countries give more than anybody else, should be a strong hint to the rest of Europe about the necessity of this.

UK, Germany and France, all have more than twice the population but give less.
Honestly I'm disappointed that other European countries don't support Ukraine more. Especially Italy and Spain, and Austria is AFAIK an almost complete no show.
But apparently half the European countries didn't mean it when they earlier this year pronounced that Europe needs to stand up for itself, and not depend on USA.

[–] Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Norway should be giving more tbh. We could donate 100bn Euro a year and not notice it. It would just mean not getting a return on the oil fund for those years.

Equipping Ukraine is arguably the best way to use the money to safeguard Norway's future. So it's not entirely altruistic.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

AFAIK Norway gives several times more per capita than USA did in 2024 with their $60 billion package.
Yes Norway is very rich with the national treasure fund, but that like saying Warren Buffet should give $20 billion because he also has a large fund of about a third of the Norway Sovereign Wealth Fund.

Norway is doing their part, Austria, Italy and Spain for instance are not. Even Greece is helping despite their economy is extremely strained.

[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It just shows that the countries close to the russian border care, while those far away don’t.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

No, UK is not as close as Italy, and Spain is about the same. And Austria is way closer than UK.
Netherlands is further away than Austria and Italy, but they for instance joined Denmark in delivering F16.
Hungary and Slovakia borders directly to Ukraine, and would be exposed if Russia takes Ukraine, despite that they have not helped, and even tried to prevent aid to Ukraine.

Also the protection of Europe is still important to EU countries that are not the closest, even if you are not a country in immediate danger, it will have an immense impact on security and economy for those countries too, if Russia chooses to make further problems, just as it already did when gas prices exploded in 2022.

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ireland has taken in a lot of refugees from the war, there has been a lot of strife internally as a resukt of the huge numbers we took in in a short amount of time.

We should be doing more in terms of funding, equipment, training etc. but we are far away and supporting. We are a wealthy nation and should do more. I am back buying british after their strong stance on this.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

We should be doing more

Absolutely, Ireland is a joke of an ally in this.

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

We are a joke to ourselves in terms of defense capabilities, we rely so thoroughly on our historical enemy for defense that a Trumpian political turn in the UK, which is not off the cards by any means, could see a very serious predicament for us.

That said in terms of humanitarian assistance we are very dcent both on a national and individual level.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Humanitarian should absolutely be included, but I haven't seen Ireland being that high on that either compared to the Nordic countries.

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (2 children)

We have increased our population by about 2-2.5% by taking in refugees from the war since 2022. That figure is between 10 and twice as much as other western countries. We have taken in over 112,000 people into a country with a popupation of around 5 million. We have a housing and resource crisis. Ukraine did not cause any of these crises to note, the politicians did, but we took them in despite the challeneges faced such as the increased cost of living and housing issues.

[–] Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Norway has a similar population, but we've only taken in 79000.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

OK that's a lot.