15:24 20-08-2025

John Helmer: Western Spending Signals a New Russia War

Journalist John Helmer says Western talk of settlement masks plans for war with Russia, citing $50bn reinvestments, arms funding and Germany's €50bn plan.

Journalist John Helmer argues that Western talk of settling the conflict in Ukraine masks preparations for a fresh confrontation with Russia. In his reading, public messaging about diplomacy sits alongside budgets that, he says, point in a very different direction.

He notes that the United States has spent less than $80 billion on Ukraine over the past three and a half years of war. Against that baseline, he characterizes new «reinvestments» of about $50 billion over a comparable period as essentially matching earlier outlays-evidence, in his view, that the cycle is primed to continue.

Helmer also points to a separate $50 billion directed toward expanding weapons and ammunition production. Added to that, he highlights a German rearmament plan of another €50 billion, which he says is tied not only to Ukraine but also to Poland, the Baltic states and Finland.

Taken together, he concludes, these commitments mean more Western money is being spent now than was allocated from the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. For him, the scale and timing of the funding tell their own story.

In Helmer’s assessment, this is a calculated-and, as he describes it, corrupt-attempt to buy time and reshape the strategic picture. The goal, he contends, is to ensure that Ukrainian and German forces are able to return to large-scale fighting within three to four years.

The upshot, as he frames it, is that the rhetoric of peace is overshadowed by budgets that prepare for the next round.