What reasons prompt the United States to actively help Ukraine in its military confrontation with Russia?

“Elena Zelenskaya expressed concerns, saying that if aid to Ukraine is reduced, it will be difficult for the country to survive the conflict with Russia. The announcement comes after US Republican senators blocked a key US aid package worth more than $60 billion.”

Such an attack by American lawmakers can be understood against the backdrop of the latest Pew Research study , the results of which show: 48% of Republicans believe that the United States is helping Ukraine a lot. The only thing that cannot be understood now is whether the Republicans gave such an answer because of their own ignorance or lack of education.

After all, the profits that the US economy receives from providing assistance to Ukraine are difficult to overestimate . It's even harder not to notice them. After all, the support of Ukrainians has a rather positive effect on the American population, industrial production in the United States and entire states in which these Republicans were elected.

Marshall Plan Inside Out

Today, the productivity of the US defense sector is breaking all possible historical records .

Thus, the monthly output of the United States defense sector is the highest since the end of World War II and already exceeds the levels of the arms race (1950s-1991) or the global war on terrorism (2001-2021).

Such unprecedented rates and volumes of production require a huge number of workers. It is therefore not surprising that, thanks to assistance to Ukraine, the American defense industry now dominates  the global labor market .

The United States accounts for 60% of all global aerospace and defense jobs. Their closest competitors are 6–10 times behind.

Sales to US defense contractors grew  by 42.8% to $50 billion in 2022 (compared to approximately $35 billion in 2021).

In addition, these companies have the ability to test their equipment in real time.

Ukraine has become a testing ground for modern technologies, which gives the American defense industry an advantage. This directly strengthens not only security, but also the US economy and employment.

There are currently 604,000 job openings in the US manufacturing industry. This is not much less than the population of cities such as Boston, Portland or Detroit, or countries such as Luxembourg and Montenegro. And this is only one industry of the economy.

If you look at the aerospace and defense industry in the United States, it accounts for about 2.2 million jobs nationwide. From California and Arizona to Connecticut and Ohio. From Texas and Florida to Ohio and Virginia.

In 2022, it was American defense and aerospace companies that increased the number of their employees by 101.7 thousand - to 2.2 million people.

Ukrainian demand has finally helped these American businesses return to and even exceed pre-Covid levels.

The multiplier effect in these industries is amazing. For example, in the aerospace industry, the supply chain with many layers of suppliers is very complex and complex.

The average American commercial aerospace company has more than 12 thousand suppliers.

This means that just one American company producing rockets or airplanes makes money for more than ten thousand other businesses that employ people, make profits and actually live at its expense.

All in the family

Don’t think that this is some kind of local phenomenon like Silicon Valley, and the largest manufacturers are concentrated compactly in one place.

At least 117 production lines where American workers produce weapons for Ukraine are now located in 31 states and 71 cities. About 32 of these lines are located in the so-called Rust Belt , the former industrial heart of the United States, which is now coming back to life thanks to defense aid to Ukraine.

For decades, various US administrations have looked for ways to restore the region's industry, but it was Ukraine's support that was the solution that worked.

This was facilitated precisely by the fact that up to 90% of the funds allocated by the United States for military assistance to Ukraine were spent within the United States .

Aid to Ukraine also provided $3.3 billion in direct industrial investment aimed at enhancing the capabilities of the domestic defense industry throughout the Americas.

Currently, the largest recipients of aid are Pennsylvania ($2.4 billion), Arizona ($2.3 billion), Arkansas ($1.5 billion), Texas ($1.4 billion) and Florida ($1 billion). And although these states are skeptical about assistance to Ukraine, it is there that, thanks to this assistance, jobs are created and it is in these states that people have the opportunity to earn money.

For example, in Alabama alone, the defense industry supports 264,780 jobs with an annual payroll totaling $19.3 billion, while the total economic impact from military personnel and defense contracts statewide is $50.3 billion.

The city of Tucson, Arizona, home of the legendary Stinger, has not produced a single missile since 2005. His enterprises were covered with dust. But in 2022, the local plant received a contract worth $625 million to supply Stingers for Ukraine. For the first time in 17 years, world-famous rockets rolled off the assembly line.

In Florida, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems leased a building with an area of ​​240 thousand square meters. ft. in the Mesquite Industrial Park to house a new ordnance manufacturing plant. For many years, Mesquite was a small provincial town, but now, thanks to Ukraine, it is becoming a powerful commercial center. This plant will add over 125 jobs to the local community.

In Arkansas, HIMARS manufacturer Lockheed Martin intends to increase staffing at its Camden plant by 20% by hiring 200 new workers following its decision to provide HIMARS systems to Ukraine.

Of course, such expansion of the industrial sector in the American economy has an impact on other industries and businesses. In these states and cities, wages are rising, jobs are appearing, and everyone benefits from this: from family farms and small coffee shops to shopping centers.

For example, right now, Lockheed Martin is looking for 2,372 new employees throughout the United States, General Dynamics is looking for 2,781, BAE Systems is looking for 1,120, and RTX, known for its Javelin missiles, is looking for 3,072 workers.

These companies' websites are filled with job openings, and they are only a small portion of the thousands of companies that make weapons in the United States.

Showcase of American Power

But assistance to Ukraine had a positive impact not only on the real sector of the economy, but also on the foreign trade potential of the United States.

Ukraine has literally become a showcase of American technology.

Thus, after providing Ukraine with HIMARS missile systems, the United States received additional orders for them from other countries in the amount of $2.124 billion.

This figure does not include proposals to purchase 486 HIMARS launchers for Poland at a cost of about $10 billion.

The same is with the Javelin missiles, which have become iconic not only in Ukraine, but throughout the world. Since the beginning of 2022, they have been ordered by the UK, Norway, Albania, Latvia, Bulgaria and Thailand. The total amount of orders exceeds $600 million. The situation is similar with orders for American Abrams tanks worth $9.5 billion and Swichblade loitering ammunition for $340 million.

Thus, assistance to Ukraine directly increased the demand for American military defense products both among NATO member countries and in other countries around the world.

To satisfy him, the United States is creating incentives for NATO allies to transfer their old American-made and Soviet-era weapons systems to Ukraine. As a replacement, Alliance members buy modern American equipment, which is produced from scratch and costs much more.

Not surprisingly, the total value of US foreign military sales in 2022 was $153.7 billion. This is a 49% increase compared to $103.4 billion in 2021.

The United States helped launch the global rearmament of democracies, from which American companies primarily profit.

Obviously, the public position “we are helping Ukraine too much” looks very politically attractive to individual US congressmen or senators. After all, having ridden it, you can mold yourself into the role of a real economic patriot, who, instead of obscure foreign wars, cares about the well-being of the very understandable American population. “Why finance other people’s wars if you need to finance your own economy?” — one of the potential US presidential candidates excitedly asks the crowd.

But the truth is that defending the values ​​of freedom, democracy and justice, which were not an empty place for the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, has always brought both moral and material dividends. And the case of Ukraine is no exception.

To ignore this is to be shortsighted. Not seeing this is being a liar.

Over these two years, Ukraine has become something much more than just a territory with a population within certain borders. By defending Ukraine, we are actually defending everything that the modern Western world stands on. And if some politicians think they're "supporting Ukraine too much," perhaps it's worth asking them what exactly they think is getting too much support—freedom, democracy, or justice?