U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed that the U.S. spent $350 billion on assistance for Ukraine. He also said he wants it back.
Trump has used the sum to pressure Ukraine into signing a deal that would give the U.S. at least a 50% interest in Ukrainian natural resources through a joint investment fund as payback for its support for Kyiv.
According to media reports and President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine would be supposed to gradually contribute $500 billion from its budget revenues from mineral resources to the fund.
Ukraine had declined to sign Trump's version of the deal, with Zelensky saying, "I am not signing something that will be paid by 10 generations of Ukrainians."
The caveat is that both the $350 billion mentioned by Trump as aid provided and the $500 billion demanded in return are not factual and were presented by the White House without explaining where the figures are from.
According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the U.S. has provided assistance worth $119.8 billion since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Only around $4 billion has to be repaid, and the repayment deadline is as late as 2065, according to prior agreements.
The Kyiv Independent provides a detailed breakdown of the aid provided, how it was measured, and what has happened to it since.
Dominic Culverwell
What are the claims?
The $350 billion aid claim was made by Trump at a news conference on Feb. 19.
The statement was immediately contradicted by the Pentagon.
The Voice of America reported on Feb. 19, citing the Pentagon and the U.S. government's Ukraine Oversight interagency group, that the U.S. Congress had appropriated $183 billion for Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. This figure includes $65.9 billion in military aid that has already been sent to Ukraine and an additional $3.9 billion that remains unspent, according to the Pentagon.
Zelensky made another claim at a news conference on Feb. 23, saying that the U.S. had allocated just around $100 billion for Ukraine during the full-scale invasion, including $67 billion in military aid and $31.5 billion in financial aid.
What are the facts?
Facts confirm that Zelensky's claim was the closest to the truth.
According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy's Ukraine Support Tracker, the U.S. has allocated $119.8 billion for Ukraine during the full-scale war, including $67.1 billion in military aid, $49 billion in financial aid, and $3.6 billion in humanitarian aid.
The discrepancy between the Kiel Institute's figure and the Pentagon's one is due to the fact that the Pentagon included some Ukraine-related allocations that were not actually sent to Ukraine.
Specifically, about $58 billion of the $183 billion in total aid was spent on the U.S. defense industry and did not go to Ukraine. Some of this money was allocated to replace old U.S. weapons given to Kyiv with new U.S.-made weapons.
Oleg Sukhov
Does Ukraine have to repay the entire amount?
Zelensky said on Feb. 23 that U.S. aid given to Ukraine cannot be counted as debt since it was disbursed in the form of grants.
Taras Shchepel, a Ukrainian lawyer who has studied the legal aspects of U.S. aid, and Oleksandr Parashchiy, an analyst at Ukrainian investment bank Concorde Capital, told the Kyiv Independent that the entire military assistance given to Ukraine by the U.S. was in the form of grants and does not have to be repaid.
In contrast with military aid, a small share of the financial assistance has been provided in the form of loans.
Olena Bilan, chief economist at Ukrainian investment bank Dragon Capital, told the Kyiv Independent that U.S. financial aid to Ukraine includes $32 billion in the form of grants that don't have to be repaid and loans worth $4 billion.
The $4 billion in loans has to be repaid in 2065 but the U.S. president has the authority to write off this debt before Jan. 1, 2026, she said.
Additionally, the U.S. has disbursed a $20 billion loan as part of a G7 initiative, according to the Ukraine Oversight Group. However, Ukraine doesn't have to repay it because this money will be repaid by proceeds from $300 billion in frozen Russian assets.
So far, Ukraine has actually received only $1 billion of the $20 billion loan allocated by the U.S., according to Parashchiy and Bilan.
Khusanboy Kotibjonov
