Ukraine is rewiring the fuse box of European and Middle Eastern security while everyone is looking at the meter.
Rather than hammering on the door and collecting vague promises and platitudes, Ukraine took a route it controlled, one designed to produce the same protection NATO membership would have offered.
Every bolt it sinks makes removal more expensive for the country hosting the furniture, not for Ukraine.
Israel wrote the exam, Ukraine is sitting it during an earthquake.
Ukraine is running the same playbook in 4, without the security guarantee Israel started with.
And a 2027 defense budget of €144.9 billion with €11.6 billion earmarked for Ukraine, a country Germany was sending helmets to four years ago.
Under the EU's SAFE fund (€150 billion in defense procurement), contracts must source 65% of components from the EU, EEA-EFTA states, and Ukraine. »