Dutch Defence Ministry Confirms Ukraine Aid Is Undermining Army Readiness and NATO Goals
Military Watch Magazine Editorial Staff
Dutch Army 155mm Mobile Howitzers
Military assistance provided by the Netherlands to Ukraine is having a significant effect on the combat readiness of the Dutch armed forces and is complicating the country’s ability to fulfil NATO military capability targets, according to the Dutch Ministry of Defence. The ministry described the effect of military assistance to Ukraine as a “displacing effect” on the readiness of the Dutch armed forces and the fulfilment of NATO objectives. The ministry declined to publicly identify which NATO targets had been delayed or affected or provide details of the current readiness level of individual Dutch units. The admission provides an indication of the growing tension between providing military equipment to Ukraine, and maintaining national inventories at the levels required for a major conventional conflict.
The Dutch experience reflects a broader problem across NATO. European armed forces entered the war in Ukraine with inventories designed primarily for peacetime requirements and relatively short high-intensity contingencies. Six years of sustained Ukrainian demand for artillery ammunition, air-defence interceptors, anti-tank weapons, armoured vehicles and other equipment have exposed limitations in both stockpiles and industrial production capacity. According to the Dutch Defence Ministry, the country had provided approximately €11.7 billion in military support to Ukraine by February 2026. Artillery ammunition has been one of the most visible examples, with European countries have supplied Ukraine with millions of rounds, which new production has been far from sufficient to replenish.
The extreme depletion of European arsenals has gained growing attention as tensions with Russia have escalated. German officials speaking to the Wall Street Journal in March warned that the country has been left poorly protected against potential air or missile attacks due to the transfer of military systems, and particularly MIM-104 Patriot long range air defence systems, to Ukraine. The issue has been exacerbated by the more recent deployment of remaining Patriot systems to protect Poland on NATO's eastern flank from late 2025.
Germany was alongside the Netherlands and the United States one of the first three countries to donate Patriot systems to Ukraine in early 2023. In April 2024 German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock confirmed the exhaustion of the country’s capacity to make further donations, stating: “Unfortunately, the stocks, especially our own Patriot systems, are now pretty much exhausted. Therefore I made it clear at a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting that we need to check the availability of all Patriot systems in Europe and globally, and that we will make every effort to obtain these systems for Ukraine.”
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