In times of need. Cross-country investigating of the determinants of aid allocation for Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion

Abstract

In August 2022, the Russian Federation’s invasion on Ukraine had already been happening for almost six months. During this time, many world governments aided Ukraine. In this paper, we examine geographical, economic, sociocultural, political, and defensive determinants of bilateral aid allocated to Ukraine on cross-national data from 87 countries. Our model explains 59% of total bilateral aid variance and shows that NATO and EU affiliation and high exports to Ukraine were related to higher aid volume. Our analysis contributes to a better understanding of aid allocation to Ukraine during the Russian invasion and suggests that countries might provide aid to enhance military safety of the Euro-Atlantic area, implement EU policies, and protect their own economic interests in Ukraine. Thus, the aid provided to Ukraine seems to serve donors’ foreign policy strategy drived at security, political, and trade interests.