We must move beyond ‘as long as it takes’ and enter an era of ‘whatever the cost’

• Oleksiy Goncharenko

Ukraine

Oleksiy Goncharenko

Published 17 March 2026 10:00am GMT

The British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore recently offered a striking diagnosis of the tectonic shifts occurring across our continent. He described Ukraine as Europe’s “greatest military power” – a “War Democracy” whose mastery of drone warfare and missile technology is already being studied by the world’s traditional heavyweights. 

It is a compelling vision: the birth of a militarised nation on the Dnipro, forged in the fires of national survival. Yet for those in Kyiv, the reality is far more clinical, expensive and decidedly more pragmatic.

Montefiore is correct in his diagnosis of Ukraine’s current trajectory, but identifying a symptom is not the same as securing a sustainable prognosis. Ukraine has indeed become the most capable military force on the continent, yet it has done so entirely against its own nature.

It is a historical irony that before 2014 Ukraine was arguably the most demilitarised nation in Europe. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kyiv did not just surrender its nuclear arsenal, it gutted its conventional forces with a zeal that would make a pacifist blush. This was a nation of farmers, IT specialists and industrial engineers, not a Prussia in waiting.

Today’s “War Democracy” is not a cultural choice or a result of a surge of bellicosity. It is a hyper-efficient adaptation to an existential threat. Ukraine did not want the best-trained infantry in Europe, it was forced into it. It did not set out to become a global leader in FPV drone manufacturing, but the choice was innovate or perish.

The result is a military-industrial complex that is now a momentous global player. When Germany buys Ukrainian systems, it isn’t a gesture of solidarity; it is a recognition that Ukrainian tech has been refined in the furnace of the world’s first high-tech war of attrition.

However, here lies the friction between ideals and economic reality. Can Ukraine actually afford to be Europe’s greatest military power? The cold answer is: no.

A “War Democracy” is ruinously expensive. The tax base of a country under constant bombardment, with millions displaced, cannot indefinitely sustain a million-man standing army and a cutting-edge R&D sector. While Ukraine currently offers Europe a straightforward exchange – battle-tested experience for survival – this cannot remain a one-sided act of endurance.

For Europe, a technologically superior army on its eastern flank is a geopolitical windfall. For decades, European security has been a subsidised luxury, an American-funded umbrella. That era is over. If Ukraine is to be the “foundation of European security”, then Europe must be prepared to pay for the foundation it is standing on.

Integration into the European Union is often discussed in Kyiv as a distant reward for good behaviour. In reality, security integration must come first, based on collective burden-sharing.

The trade-off is simple: Ukraine provides human capital, front-line readiness and the world’s most advanced electronic warfare laboratory. In return, the West must provide the long-term capital to sustain it. This isn’t charity, but a professional service. If Ukraine is to deter a revanchist Russia, its army should be viewed as a shared European asset, funded through shared defence mechanisms.

We are witnessing the arrival of a new world power, but one “under grievous strain”. The “War Democracy” is fragile. It requires more than applause or the occasional shipment of shells; it requires a fundamental reimagining of how Europe pays for its peace.

The question for Brussels is no longer whether Ukraine fits into the European project, but whether that project can survive without Ukraine’s martial weight.

Ukraine is ready to be the anchor of a new European defence bloc, provided legacy powers stop viewing the conflict as a philanthropic project. The deal is one of cold-blooded realism: Ukraine provides the security Europe lacks, while Europe provides the economic engine Ukraine has lost to the war.

We must move beyond “as long as it takes” and enter an era of “whatever the cost” (in terms of money and resources). Otherwise, Europe’s greatest military power may become a flame that burns with incredible intensity, only to consume itself for lack of fuel. Ukraine provides the shield, but Europe must provide the forge. It is time we signed the contract.

Oleksiy Goncharenko is the Ukrainian member of parliament for Odesa