Katrin Bennhold and Steven Erlanger discuss the Ukraine Russia conflict and US funding

Feb. 25, 2024.

In this episode of The Daily, host Katrin Bennhold talks with Steven Erlanger, the chief diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times about how Europe plans to defend itself against Russia without the financial help of the United States, if the U.S. stops funding its allies in Europe.

Erlanger attended a European security conference and specifically noted the shaky mood in the air regarding the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. While this conference was going on, Alexei Navalny, Russia's loudest voice of internal dissent, died in prison.

Navalny's death naturally left people concerned, according to Erlanger, who also pointed out that Russia had recently advanced on and taken over Avdiivka, an important crossroads town. Erlanger believes that between the U.S. Congress dragging its feet on sending funds to Ukraine and comments made by Donald Trump, Russia could make a strong advance on Ukraine in the war.

Trump said that if NATO members did not pay, he would encourage Russia to attack them, effectively undermining Article 5 of the NATO charter. Article 5 states that if a NATO ally falls victim to an armed attack, all other allies should consider the attack an attack on themselves and retaliate to maintain and restore security.

Many Europeans are concerned by his comments because despite him not currently holding the presidency, he could regain it very soon. Erlanger notes that Europe has become dependent on the U.S. for defense since the fall of the Soviet Union, and has spent less and less money on defending themselves.

This current hold on U.S. funding from Congress has given Europe a small taste of what could come in the future if Trump is elected president once again.

With NATO members giving what little reserves of military equipment and munitions they had to Ukraine, these European countries find themselves in a difficult place. They have minimal reserves to send and they lack the means to replenish those reserves.

Erlanger says that their options include potentially banding together to create a new Europe exclusive NATO clone, with "less America." This would mean that they need to spend significantly more money on defense and munitions which would of course be an unpopular idea.

This topic is important to discuss because of the looming U.S. Presidential election and the potential slowing of funds sent to Europe by the United States. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia could easily become a global issue as well.

The challenges in reporting this begin with being able to attend that European security conference. It was likely not easy for Erlanger to be able attend this, in spite of him being the chief diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times.