I've heard it argued that the main reason Europeans are funding them is out of fear that ASOP and such hardened fighters / right-wing extremists are gonna spill out over the continent and start revolutions against every country that didn't fund them...
It's a bit of a problem because Z is at this point basically a bank robber with a suicide belt - and if he hits the button, that's a good outcome for Putin because all of his European adversaries get overthrown...
