Fact-checked: How much financial aid has the US, UK and Europe contributed to Ukraine’s war effort?

Donald Trump has made further claims about the amount the US spends on supporting the Ukrainian war effort as he prepares to welcome Volodymyr Zelensky.

The US president is expected to meet his Ukrainian counterpart in Washington, DC, on Friday to discuss a minerals deal.

Their meeting will follow Sir Keir Starmer’s talks with Mr Trump, after the British prime minister pledged a decrease in international aid would fund further defence spending.

Mr Trump told a press conference on Tuesday: “I hear that [Mr Zelensky is] coming on Friday. Certainly it’s OK with me if he’d like to. And he would like to sign it together with me. And I understand that’s a big deal, very big deal.”

“It could be a trillion-dollar deal; it could be anything,” he added. “It’s rare earth. We’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars on Ukraine and Russia fighting.

“This guy went into the situation and is spending money like nobody has ever seen. The other thing we don’t like is that Europe has spent $100 billion (£79bn) and we have spent $350 billion.

“Europe gets their money back because they spent it in the form of a loan. And we just gave them $300 billion, $350 billion, nobody really knows. We wanna be secure and we wanna get our money back. The American taxpayer is gonna get their money back plus.”

The issue of financing has already led to a clash between Mr Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, with Mr Zelensky also disputing his claims.

Here’s what we can discern.

How much has the US, UK and Europe contributed to Ukraine’s war effort?

US

Mr Trump has repeated that the US has given $300bn to $350bn to Ukraine since the war with Russia began in February 2022.

However, the figure is said to be much lower.

The Kiel Institute, a leading German research institute, said the US has spent $119bn. A more comprehensive estimate by the US Department for Security, including replenishing defence stocks, puts the figure at $182bn.

The Standard has approached the US State Department for a response regarding the origin of the $350bn figure. However, we did not receive a reply at the time of writing.

Europe

Mr Trump has also made dubious claims about the spending on the war effort made by European allies — which relates to the EU and individual countries making contributions.

He has repeatedly claimed that Europe has paid around $100bn to the cause, although the BBC has claimed that it has not found any evidence of where this came from.

Instead, the BBC’s analysis of the Kiel Institute figures found that Europe has paid around $138bn.

“Europe is loaning money to Ukraine, they get their money back,” said Mr Trump in a press conference held this week alongside Emmanuel Macron.

The French president responded: “No, in fact. To be frank, we paid. We paid 60 per cent of the total effort.”

The Kiel Institute found that most contributions were made from loans, grants and guarantees. The US has given a higher proportion of its contribution to Ukraine via a grant. The European funding is mostly from loans, but these are on favourable terms.

UK

The UK’s contribution is separate from Europe’s, with a total commitment of £12.8bn to Ukraine. This includes £7.8 billion in military support and £5 billion in non-military aid, according to Government data.

Britain has provided this assistance through grants, guarantees and loans.

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