Trump says the minerals deal he has signed with Kyiv will allow the US to recuperate up to $350 billion in financial support. Euronews fact checks the claims.
As Ukraine and the US close a major agreement on the exploitation of minerals and rare earths on Ukrainian territory, President Donald Trump says the deal will allow the US to recuperate as much as $350 billion in money it has given Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Trump said: “We’ve spent 350 billion (…) We just gave them, whether it’s 300 or 350 billion, nobody really knows. They can’t even tell me the answer to that, means probably more than that.”
He added that the American taxpayer “is going to get their money back” through the mooted minerals pact, which the president said could be worth $1 trillion.
But the figures cited by Trump eclipse the sums cited by his own federal government.
How much financial support has the US given Ukraine?
Western allies provide Ukraine with a range of financial support, spanning humanitarian and development aid, military support as well as other financial allocations.
The assistance is designed to help prop up Ukraine’s economy and give it the military power it needs to withstand Russia’s invasion.
According to US federal government sources, Congress has passed five so-called ‘supplemental appropriation acts’ since the 2022 invasion, allocating $174.2 billion in funds for Ukraine.
Another US government tracker – which compiles data from over 20 oversight entities from across the government – puts the headline sum slightly higher at $182.8 billion. This is because the tracker also includes smaller donations made by other government agencies, such as the U.S. Agency for Global. Media (USAGM) or the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Of this, $182.8 billion pot, only $83.4 billion has been disbursed, with the remaining $99,4 billion either not yet committed or not yet approved for payment.
Other estimates provided by the Berlin-based Kiel institute for the World Economy put the headline figure of total US assistance at 114.15 billion (119.76 billion).
This is because of the Kiel Institute’s methodology, which only considers support directly given to Ukraine. It excludes things like money used to replenish US weapon stocks following donations to Kyiv, or funds spent to help neighbouring countries welcome Ukrainian refugees.
Why are false claims Ukraine ‘lost’ US money circulating?
In an interview with the news agency AP on February 2, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was asked to react to the Trump administration’s freeze on US aid. The decision has affected a raft of Ukrainian projects, including those providing humanitarian assistance and support to war veterans.
Zelenskyy responded: “When I hear (…) that America has given Ukraine hundreds of billions – 177 (billion dollars) to be precise – (…) I tell you as the president of a country at war that we have received more than 75 billion.”
“That is, 100 billion (…) we never got,” the Ukrainian president went on, explaining that most of the aid given was received in the form of weapons.
Zelenskyy was pointing to the almost $100 billion that the US has earmarked but not yet disbursed to Ukraine. This number aligns with the US government’s figures.
He went on to say that the US had also contributed to the training of Ukrainian military personnel as well as humanitarian programmes. “But when they say that Ukraine during the war received two hundred billion in support, this is not true. I don’t know where all this money is,” he said.
In the weeks since the interview was published by AP, Zelenskyy’s comments have been manipulated to suggest that Ukraine held on to the sum of $100 billion it says it did not receive. Some online users have falsely claimed the funding has been misused or laundered.
We found these claims circulating on X, Facebook and TikTok.
How does Trump say he will recuperate money spent on Ukraine?
President Trump says the minerals deal reportedly signed between Washington and Kyiv on Wednesday would allow him to recover the financial assistance the US has spent so far.
According to media reports, the Trump administration initially demanded $500 billion ($524.2 billion) in revenues from the joint fund that would be set up under the deal.
That demand has now been dropped from the draft agreement, published in full by the Financial Times, and the text does not mention the value of the deal.
On Sunday, Ukrainian authorities said that around $350 billion of worth of Ukraine’s critical minerals are in territories currently held by Russia in the east of the country.
“We have information that, unfortunately, there is about $350 billion worth of these useful critical materials in temporarily occupied territory,” deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
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