Raik said that if the substantial U.S. aid package to Ukraine had not been approved by Congress last week, there would have been a looming question about the likelihood of Ukraine's defense collapsing before the end of the year.

"However, the situation has completely changed in the sense that Ukraine can now defend itself. At times, the mood was quite pessimistic. In the West, this now instills the belief that Ukraine may indeed eventually win the war. Naturally, a long battle is still ahead and much remains to be done," she said.

Raik added that, especially for Europe, the pressure remains very high to consolidate further and support Ukraine even more so that Kyiv can continue to fight next year.

She said the approval of the U.S. aid package has not led to a perception in Europe that support for Ukraine can be scaled back.

"There is, of course, a slight risk that it now seems that U.S. support will continue and maybe even that Donald Trump has finally concluded that it would be detrimental for him to continue obstructing U.S. support for Ukraine. So, this adds a bit of hope that even after the presidential elections, if Trump were to become president, it wouldn't mean that the U.S. would turn its back on Ukraine. But of course, we don't know that. And it seems to me that the prevailing view in Europe is that the continuation of U.S. aid after this recently decided package is so uncertain that Europe cannot rely on it. And indeed, signals are increasingly coming from various European countries about decisions to increase defense spending and about new aid packages for Ukraine," Raik explained.

Raik mentioned that the U.S. aid package's approval came as a surprise to Russia.

"Russia has tended to consistently underestimate the West over the years. And recently, Russia's narrative was very strong that they would ultimately withstand longer, that Western support would dry up. And it seems they believed in this narrative and were genuinely surprised that the U.S. finally made its decision. And they don't really have a clear response to it; it just shows that the Russian talk of outlasting has no basis in reality. When we look at Western resources, they are simply many times greater than Russia's. But Russians have believed that their political will and resilience and psychological decisiveness are stronger than the West's. But it must always be proven to them that this is certainly not the case," the expert elaborated.

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