NEW YORK, October 15. /TASS/. European countries have for decades been skimping on defense, turning their armed forces into ill-trained "Potemkin armies" which cannot defend Europe without US assistance, Bloomberg writes.

According to the media outlet, European armies have suffered from significant funding cuts. Between 1990 and 2020, the share of defense spending in the United Kingdom, Spain, France and Germany dropped by 51.4%, 39.6%, 35.7% and 27.9% respectively. Meanwhile, even if European countries raise defense spending to 3.5% of GDP, they won’t be able to match the US army’s combat capabilities because of the increasing economic crisis in the European Union.

Besides, the number of ground troops in NATO’s European member countries declined by 61% in 1994-2024, from two mln to 784,000. The same trend has been recorded in the air forces, where the number of servicemen fell by 60% from 658,000 to 265,000. The French army shrank by 56% to 203,000 servicemen, and the British army decreased to 73,000, its lowest number since the beginning of the 19th century. Matthew Savill of the London-based Royal United Services Institute told Bloomberg that troop losses similar to those that Ukraine is suffering in Russia’s special military operation "would be the fighting strength of the British army gone."

In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an executive order to increase the number of military personnel in the Russian Armed Forces by 180,000 to 1.5 mln. According to the document, the total number of people serving in the Russian Armed Forces has been set at 2,389,130, including 1,500,000 servicemen. Under the previous order, which took effect on December 1, 2023, the figure stood at 2,209,130 people, including 1,320,000 servicemen.