Pompeo Urges Europe to Spend More on Military Power

Mike Pompeo said Vladimir Putin has shown no willingness to end the war against Ukraine, and urged European governments to spend more, train soldiers and build military capabilities. Speaking with RFE/RL on October 29, the former US Secretary of State argued that Western governments must keep backing Kyiv and prepare for a wider confrontation. Ukrainians face the consequences, including attacks on civilians and a difficult winter.

The demands made in capitals

Pompeo said Putin continued a “terror campaign” because, in his judgment, the costs of the war didn’t outweigh its benefits. He claimed the Ukrainian military was inflicting “42,000 casualties a month,” while Putin targeted civilians to persuade political leaders in Kyiv, Washington, Brussels and European capitals that continued support for Ukraine wasn’t worth the cost. Pompeo said Putin was trying to make “an incredibly difficult winter for the Ukrainian people, not for the Ukrainian military.”

On diplomacy, Pompeo was blunt: “You don’t believe a single thing that he says. You simply observe the actions that he takes.” He said negotiations should continue, but any framework or agreement must be signed and monitored; it should be believed “only when the execution takes place.” In his account, political leaders and military powers make decisions while civilians live through the pressure those decisions create.

Pompeo pointed to a temporary, short-term ceasefire in Oleshky, in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, as an example of what he called Putin’s willingness to offer only “the most minuscule cease-fires.” He contrasted that with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s agreement to broad ceasefires on energy and agriculture at the Black Sea, and his public willingness to accept a ceasefire along the military lines as they stood. Pompeo called their approaches “radically different.”

Security built from military commitments

Pompeo said a secure outcome would require a long-term commitment and a security architecture that made the cost of Putin’s next advance “simply unacceptable.” He said the arrangement mattered less than whether it involved NATO, and suggested European non-Ukrainian forces on the line could make a later attack one on the West, not only Ukraine. His vision makes military presence and deterrence central to security.

He urged every nation — “all two dozen-plus of them” — to spend money, train soldiers and join military and strategic efforts. Asked whether Western defenses could deter simultaneous conflicts involving China in the Indo-Pacific and Russia in Europe, he answered: “We’re going to crush them.” Political leaders, he added, must explain these responsibilities to the public. Pompeo also warned that countries that didn’t defend their borders or develop military capabilities risked having “Islamists inside your country.” He tied military spending and border defense to a single argument about sovereignty.

Pompeo criticized what he called the diesel agreement, referring to President Trump’s recent statement that “we take some Russian diesel.” He said the arrangement didn’t solve America’s energy problem or bring a negotiated solution closer. “The Europeans continue to spend enormous amounts of money upholding the Russian war machine,” he said. “That’s hypocrisy.” For Pompeo, the key question wasn’t what officials said to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Atlanta, but what Western governments would do to support Ukraine’s defense of its border.

Private systems, public dependence

Pompeo called disruptions to Ukraine’s Starlink access for defensive drone operations dangerous. He said he’d seen multiple explanations, didn’t know what to make of them beyond an apparent limitation for a period, and described the episode as difficult for Ukrainian forces. He said the disruption showed that every nation needed its own capabilities, while welcoming continued US intelligence assistance. Calling Starlink “an American product developed by an amazing American company,” he added: “Developed by Elon [Musk] and his team.”

Pompeo said Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and Pyongyang were working together, citing cooperation on weapons systems, electronic components and tactical and strategic intelligence sharing. He called their arrangement an alliance, despite disagreements among the countries. On Iran, he said stopping ships and interdicting goods could disrupt supply lines between Tehran and Moscow, and predicted the Iranian regime would collapse under economic pressure and other measures. That was Pompeo’s forecast, not an established outcome. Across the interview, he presented greater state capacity as the answer to state violence: military spending, border defense, economic pressure and security commitments.