How has your country contributed to the NATO-led battlegroups across Eastern Europe? Has it been universally supported within your country?

6 comments

1. It hasn’t. No NATO.

   We instead support Ukraine itself with humanitarian help. Other than the far right, who tend to be Russia-friendly, this is seen as generally positive, but many believe we aren’t doing enough.

2. Germany:

   For absolutely no specific reason the support for the *Bundeswehr* (our armed forces) and NATO has increased since February 24 2022 4am in the morning.

   While support for the Bundeswehr was always okayish the population, every political party saw the Bundeswehr as a cheap scapegoat in order to reduce costs after the end of the Cold War in 1991 and not even the events of 2014 dramatically changed that. Only the extreme left and right, are firmly opposed to support Eastern Europe operations, with the rest begrudgingly accepting a large increase in defense spending.

   Actual support / contributions right now consists of shared air patrols, and smaller contingents of soldiers in the Baltic states. For 2023 it is planned that Germany will lead the VJTF land brigade, and a much higher force readiness is built up for the coming years.

   However I am quite sure that German bureaucracy, especially for military procurement, will kill everything. After all we are not even able to purchase cold weather underwear for 350 soldiers we are sending into cold weather. Or paratrooper helmets. Because we first have to scientifically research if average German heads are compatible with average NATO country heads.

   SYL

3. Germany leads the group in Lithuana and I think recenty some troops have been deployed to Slovakia.

   But I think most Germans couldn’t really tell you where exactly German troops are and what they are doing there.

   There is some kind of natural scepticism of large parts of the German society towards everything remotely militrary related, although with the recent aggression against Ukraine, German public opinion towards NATO has significantly improved and many people started to realise that their previous pacifism was a bit naive.

4. Dutch troops are part of the battlegroup in Lithuania.
   Additionally, Dutch troops will join the battlegroup in Romania which is led by France from August 2022 onwards.

   I am not aware of any sizeable opposition to this, especially not given the current circumstances. According to a poll by EenVandaag, 77 percent of those polled support meeting the 2 percent agreement when it comes to defense spending. [Source, in Dutch](https://eenvandaag.avrotros.nl/panels/opiniepanel/alle-uitslagen/item/snel-meer-geld-naar-ons-leger-driekwart-wil-dat-nederland-aan-de-navo-norm-gaat-voldoen/)

5. No NATO and our Army is a joke that is completely unnecessary, as we are protected by NATO countries. Austria and Switzerland are currently probably the safest places on earth because for a hostile force to attack us they’s have to go through NATO so I really can’t understand whh we recently increased military spending. We already have mandatory military service even though none of us will probably ever have to participate in a war. Especially in these economically hard times that money could be put to use for relieve funds etc.

6. The UK has contributed quite a bit so far but I still think more offensive weapons are needed to remove russia from Ukrainian land.
   We need to quickly upscale our ability to produce more ammunition especially for artillery, russia has huge stockpiles and our facilities just can’t produce enough ammo in time to match the orcs.
   We have been living under a peaceful rock for too long and need to learn to stand up for ourselves and our friends once again.