Ukraine<\/a>, had voiced support.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0c8ef75508031e3bc47bbe72439f4e45.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
But any proposals adopted by Nato require the unanimous backing of all of its national capitals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not very enthusiastic about the idea,\u201d the insider said, labelling London, Paris, Madrid, Rome and Ottawa as opponents.<\/p>\n
The news will come as a double-blow to Britain\u2019s credibility as one of Ukraine\u2019s staunchest allies.<\/p>\n
This week, the Government came under intense criticism after it softened sanctions against Russian oil and gas exports.<\/p>\n
To the surprise of Kyiv and other allies, ministers signed off on a decision to offer time-limited carve-outs for purchases of jet fuel and diesel refined from Russian crude in third countries because of the situation in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Unlike other allies, the size of Britain\u2019s military contribution \u2013 the third largest behind the US and Germany \u2013 is not in question, despite coming under the 0.25 per cent of GDP mark.<\/p>\n
Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, has pledged at least \u00a33bn a year \u2013 approximately 0.1 per cent \u2013 for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
Most of the complaints are focused on the likes of France, Spain, Italy and Canada, who have been repeatedly accused of not pulling their weight.<\/p>\n
The countries, three of which are Europe\u2019s third, fourth and fifth largest economies, have fallen behind many of their smaller allies when it comes to donations.<\/p>\n
According to publicly available data, collated by the Kiel Institute, the Netherlands, Poland and the Nordic and Baltic countries offer backing at or above 0.25 per cent of GDP.<\/p>\n
Mr Rutte has argued that Ukraine aid \u201cis not evenly distributed within Nato\u201d, with many \u201cnot spending enough when it comes to the support for Ukraine\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Nato chief, who spent 14 years as Dutch prime minister, has long argued that Europe should shoulder more of the responsibility for supporting Ukraine in defence of Donald Trump\u2019s complaints about continental freeloading.<\/p>\n
The US president has since halted any significant donations of aid to Ukraine, instead opting to sell American weapons to Kyiv with money supplied by European allies.<\/p>\n
Ahead of a Nato meeting in Sweden earlier this week, the Nordic state\u2019s prime minister challenged allies to step up their support.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really would like more countries that speak so extremely well about Ukraine to also put the money where the mouth is,\u201d Ulf Kristersson told reporters.<\/p>\n
An Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman said: \u201cThe UK continues to engage with Nato allies on all proposals to ensure the alliance can best support Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Representatives from France, Italy, Spain and Canada did not respond to The Telegraph\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain and France have scuppered a proposal for Nato allies to spend 0.25 per cent of GDP on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[135],"tags":[47748,245,389,5954,949,330],"class_list":["post-87334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-rutte","tag-baltic-countries","tag-france","tag-mark-rutte","tag-military-aid","tag-nato-allies","tag-ukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116640649522828348","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}