According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, per GDP, Estonia has donated far more to Ukraine than any other nation, including the US, the UK or other larger European economies.
According to the Kiel Institute, since the start of the Russian unprovoked aggression against Ukraine on 24 February 2022 – the Estonian Independence Day – the United States has donated almost €4.4 billion to Ukraine and is by far the largest donor.
Estonia has donated €220 million; considering the country’s population, it is the largest donor per capita.
“It is striking that the US committed almost four times as much military aid as all other 30 Western countries combined (€4.366 billion US v. €1.216 billion for all others, not accounting for the €1 billion European Peace Facility). It is equally striking that the small country of Estonia offered more military aid to Ukraine than all of the large EU economies, according to our data,” the institute said.
The Kiel Institute then points out that the Eastern European countries stand out as “particularly generous when considering the size of their economy, with Estonia, Poland, Lithuania and Slovakia being the top four donors. The United States (being the largest donor in absolute terms) comes in sixth, providing assistance worth around 0.04 percent of its GDP.”
The US is giving more than the entire EU
All in all, Estonia has provided aid to Ukraine worth around close to 0.8 per cent of its GDP. Estonia is followed by Poland (0.17% of its GDP), Lithuania (0.06), Slovakia (0.05), Sweden (0.045) and the US.
“It is remarkable that the US alone is giving significantly more than the entire EU, in whose immediate neighborhood the war is raging,” Christoph Trebesch, the research director at the Kiel Institute and lead author of the Ukraine Support Tracker, said.
“Geographic proximity to Ukraine seems to play a major role in the engagement of Eastern European countries. But the UK also stands out as a supporter of Ukraine, both in absolute terms and relative to economic output,” Trebesch said.
The Kiel Institute for the World Economy is an independent, non-profit economic research institute and think tank based in Kiel, Germany. In 2017, it was ranked as one of the top 50 most influential think tanks in the world and was also ranked in the top 15 in the world for economic policy specifically.
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