Huge expense? Not one life lost, all infrastructure intact and got rid of mostly 80's military hardware while getting budget for new stuff and a whole lot of free field testing and marketing for export.

We are not sending gold bars or euro bills, we're paying local companies to produce ammo or sending surplus hardware "for the value of $$$" that would otherwise sit in a hangar somewhere.

This is the cheapest war "Europe" has ever fought, can't say the same about Ukraine or Russia.

I think the plan is to not let it get to that point? Ukraine is the front line against Russia. If the front line falls, the front line then becomes Poland, which is just one step away from Germany.