The U.S. is our ally, but we must acknowledge reality, says Lana Zerkal.

Yes, the USA is our ally, but it's important to accept reality and understand our interests and theirs.

Altruism and selfless assistance have never been characteristic of the USA. I don't know why we, Ukrainians, chose to believe in the fairy tale of the wonderful Marshall Plan that was implemented for Europe, but this belief now has negative consequences for us. On an emotional level, we feel betrayed and humiliated. This stems from our inflated expectations of the USA.

Our perception of the USA has always been somewhat idealistic and based on the Hollywood myth of heroes defending democracy and values. We never questioned whether this matched reality because the image was mostly too beautiful.

Now, both we and the rest of Europe are waking up from this hypnosis and justifiably outraged by the realization of the bluntness, pragmatism, and egocentrism of the USA. Should we be outraged by the finally revealed essence of US geopolitics? Or is the blatant nature of the Trump administration's interests worse than the hypocrisy and hidden disregard for Ukraine's interests shown by the previous Biden administration?

Yes, we are horrified as we witness a deluge of news, trying to understand what will happen and how it will all turn out for us. Is our deal with the USA extortion and humiliation, or is it truly an agreement about nothing? Or are the parties merely exchanging interpretations in the information space before their voters for the sake of PR victories? Is this really about an agreement similar to the Marshall Plan?

We can confidently say that this is not extortion and we are not giving our resources to the USA. This is definitely PR from both sides. Whether this agreement can become a catalyst for our development and change, essentially a kind of Marshall Plan, depends more on us.

We need to have a clear understanding of what we want to develop with the help of American technologies, capital, and expertise. We must have a strategy on how to utilize the proposed format—primarily in our own interests. And yes, Americans will also profit from our potential success. They always profit from everything. That's their trademark.

For those interested in what the Marshall Plan truly meant for Europe, which politicians often talk about as a heavenly manna, I propose a dive into numbers and facts.

The author of the post-war American aid program for Europe (European Recovery Program), which later became known by his name, US Secretary of State George Marshall, assured in 1948 that the global goal guiding the USA was to restore European nations' confidence in the economic future of their countries and Europe as a whole.

Indeed, thanks to American financing, Western European countries managed to revive their industry, banking system, energy sector, and agricultural sector, build new social institutions, and lay the groundwork for a system of collective security. The implementation of the Marshall Plan was a catalyst for alliances and organizations such as NATO, OECD, and later the EU.

Over the four years of the plan's operation, the USA spent $13 billion on Europe's recovery. Adjusted for inflation and exchange rate differences, this amount is now approximately $175 billion. Of this, only $1.5 billion (equivalent to today's $20 billion) came in the form of concessional loans, while the rest was grant aid. Winston Churchill called the Marshall Plan "the most selfless act in history."

So, what remained behind the scenes of this "useless act" by the USA?

All grants provided to Europe had a clear targeted purpose: 70% of the donated money was spent by European countries on American goods, products, services, equipment, weapons, technologies, and resources. Europeans were not allowed to invest American money in the development of their own oil refining, instead being offered to purchase the products of American oil companies.

The Marshall Plan prevented the establishment of a European financial system for many years, establishing the dominance of the US dollar as the new world currency. The USA provided loans to European countries for economic projects that aligned with US interests. Europeans received these loans from special funds that they co-financed. They repaid their debts to America with interest over 20 years—up until the early '70s.

From 1948 to 1952, US GDP increased by 50% due to exports of agricultural products, sales of machinery, energy resources, and technologies to Europe. In "modern money," America not only recovered $20 billion in loans issued to Europeans and about $10 billion in interest but also cemented its military, economic, and security dominance in Europe. Additionally, $108 billion returned to the USA, which Europe received from them in the form of grants.

P.S. I think it would be very interesting to see an infographic of the actual distribution of funds provided to Ukraine. Even this would be very eye-opening.