With Ukraine war aid reaching $280 billion, who’s really funding the most – the US or EU?
Defending Ukraine in its war with Russia has cost $280 billion so far – and the US has contributed more than any other country.
President Donald Trump has raised concerns about the cost of the war in Ukraine in recent days and the topic dominated his Monday meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron.
Countries around the world have donated billions to the Ukrainian war effort since Russia invaded the country in February 2022, but the two largest sources of funding are the US and the 27 country bloc of the European Union.
Collectively the European Union has given $138 billion in financial, military and humanitarian aid, according to reports.
The US has allocated the most of any single country, $119 billion, according to the Germany-based Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which catalogues aid to the war-torn country through its Ukraine Support Tracker, focusing on government-to-government transfers.
In its most recent report, released Feb. 14, the German think tank reported that the US doled out $64 billion in military aid, $46 billion in financial aid, and $3.5 billion humanitarian aid.
Most of the aid given to Ukraine from the European Union was financial aid, which totaled $68 billion, with $53 billion in military spending.
Humanitarian aid from the EU totaled $17 billion during the three year period since the war began.
The costs of the war on the other side are harder to calculate, but Russia has spent more than $211 billion to fight its war against its neighbor and lost some $10 billion in canceled or paused arms sales, according to statistics compiled by the Pentagon.
In addition some $300 billion in Russian assets located in foreign bank accounts have been frozen.
During Monday’s meeting Macron said Europe would commit peacekeeping troops to help end the conflict. He also attempted to correct Trump, who said most of the EU’s aid to Ukraine has been made as loans rather than grants. Trump insisted that Europe should finance the cost of a peacekeeping force in Ukraine.
However, Britain’s The Economist has reported sixty percent of the financial aid doled out by the US has been given to Ukraine in the form of grants, which do not need to be repaid, while 90 percent of financial aid to Ukraine from the EU is in the form of loans with generous repayment schedules.
Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky have been going back and forth on a deal over valuable rare minerals from Ukraine to help repay the Ukrainian war effort, which was settled on Tuesday, although the exact terms have not been revealed.
“I do not recognize [that Kyiv owes the US] even $100 billion,” Zelensky told reporters at the weekend.
“We agreed with [former President] Biden that this was a grant. A grant is not a debt,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky has also said he rejected an earlier version of the deal because he didn’t see enough “security guarantees” offered by the US in exchange for billions in mineral rights.
US military aid to Ukraine has included more Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Multiple Launch Rocket Systems and Howitzers than any other country.
Poland has donated the most tanks with 354, followed by the Netherlands with 104 then Denmark with 77 followed by the US with 76, according to Kiel institute’s figures.
Germany has donated the most air defense systems with 27, worth $4.8 billion, followed by the US with 17, at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion, according to the researchers.