President Joe Biden was reportedly heavily criticized by lead European officials over his response to the Russia-Ukraine War, stating that the U.S. has “profited the most” due to the war.
As explained in a report from Politico, lead European officials think that while Europe has been struggling in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, America has ended up making money off of weapons and gas.
“The fact is, if you look at it soberly, the country that is most profiting from this war is the U.S. because they are selling more gas and at higher prices, and because they are selling more weapons,” claimed an unnamed senior official as reported by Politico.
The same official went on to add that the U.S. needed to understand that public opinion all across Europe was quickly changing, most notably as the continent has been forced to deal with rapidly increasing prices for energy, which are only expected to get much worse as winter sets in. He stated that many people from Europe were starting to become quite skeptical of the U.S. and the war in general, which has dragged on since this past March.
“We are really at a historic juncture,” stated the official. “America needs to realize that public opinion is shifting in many EU countries.”
The U.S. has to date issued multiple billions of dollars in both weapons and aid to Ukraine while the Biden administration has stated that it will keep on issuing more, calling for another $38 billion this past week, including defense aid.
When questioned about the various claims that the U.S. was the one actually responsible for the rising gas prices for the continent, one spokesperson for the National Security Council went on to pin the blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The rise in gas prices in Europe is caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Putin’s energy war against Europe, period,” stated the spokesperson,” explained the spokesperson prior to adding that exports of liquified natural gas let Europe become far less reliant on Putin’s Russia for energy.
These accusations take place after many European nations were forced to rapidly search for new supplies and sources of power after Russia cut off its shipments of natural gas and the intense damage afflicted to the Nord Stream pipeline from a still unknown perpetrator.
Russia was the source for a total of 40% of the natural gas supply this past year for Europe, a rate that has fallen to a total of 9% as of three months ago. As the largest economy on the continent, Germany has seen dependence on natural gas supplies from Russia drop from its previous 55% to 35%.
“I think it has been addressed for this winter,” stated BP CEO Bernard Looney concerning storage levels. “It’s the next winter I think many of us worry, in Europe, could be even more challenging.”
