The president is on a wave of lies on.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday and in a social media publication on Wednesday, Trump made numerous fake statements about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Russian war in Ukraine-some of whom echoed inaccurate discussion of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Here is a verification of the facts of some of your statements.
Who started the war?
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Trump rejected Ukraine’s complaints about his exclusion from the conversations between the US and Russia to end the war – and said falsely about Ukraine :.
Ukraine did not start war. Russia began the war by invading Ukraine in 2022. Trump’s former vice-president, Mike Pence, and several Republican legislators observed this obvious fact following Trump’s lie.
Zelensky approval index
In Tuesday’s same comments, Trump appealed to new Ukrainian elections – last year’s presidential elections were canceled because the country is under martial law – and falsely stated that Zelensky is.
This number of 4% is not even closely.
The last poll of one of the main Ukrainian survey institutes, held earlier this month, revealed that 57% of Ukrainians said they trust Zelensky. This value rose from 52% December – and 52% was the lowest value of Zelensky in war time in this series of confidence inquiries, which measure something similar to the American concept of presidential approval.
USA Aid to Ukraine in War Time
In Wednesday on social networks, Trump falsely stated that Zelensky “convinced the United States of America to spend $ 350 billion” to “enter” a war impossible to win.
The value of $ 350 billion is also far from reality.
According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German reflection group that closely follows the aid in Ukraine War time, the US compromised a total of about $ 124 billion in military, financial and humanitarian aid Ukraine between the end of January 2022, just before the Russian invasion, and the end of December 2024; Think Tank found that the US really allocated about $ 119 billion.
It is possible to reach different totals using different count methodologies, but there is no apparent base for Trump’s “350 billion” number. The US government inspector general who supervises Ukraine’s response said at his website that “on September 30, 2024, the US Ukraine response financing totaling almost $ 183 billion, with $ 130.1 billion of dollars required and $ 86.7 billion disbursed ” – and this includes financing spent in the US or sent to other countries other than Ukraine.
US help vs. European aid
Both in Tuesday’s comments and on Wednesday on social networks, Trump returned to his known but false statement about a supposed huge disparity between the amount of Ukraine aid provided by the US and Europe.
On Tuesday said: “I think Europe gave $ 100 billion and we gave, say, over $ 300 billion.” He wrote on Wednesday: “The United States spent more $ 200 billion than Europe.”
None of these statements is exact.
In fact, according to data from the Kiel Institute, Europe – the European Union and the individual European countries – had collectively granted much more military, financial and humanitarian aid in Ukraine war time until December (FEE $ 258 billion) than the US (about $ 124 billion). Europe has also attributed more military, financial and humanitarian aid (about $ 138 billion) than the US (about $ 119 billion).
The US had a slight advantage in a specific category, the attributed military aid, providing about $ 67 billion against about $ 65 billion to Europe. But even that was not near the giant giant that Trump described.
Zelensky and the “missing” money from help
In Wednesday’s publication on social networks, Trump falsely stated that Zelensky “admits that half of the money we sent him is” missing “.” Then he made a report similar to reporters on Tuesday.
But Zelensky did not do such admission. Instead, he questioned the exaggerated statements about the amount of American money that Ukraine received.
In an interview from 1 February to the Associated Press, Zelensky said that although people say Ukraine received up to $ 200 billion in US help, Ukraine received about $ 76 billion, largely in the form of weapons. Zelensky said he doesn’t know where all the additional money was declared and that maybe these higher numbers are correct “on paper”, according to a translation from the news agency Ukrainska Pravda.
Unlike his viral social networking publications this month, it was not a confession that half of the money the US sent to Ukraine had disappeared. In fact, Zelensky was saying exactly what experts in the US and other places have repeatedly pointed out – that a large part of the US total budgetary response to the Ukraine war is not in the form of money given to the Ukrainian government.
For example, experts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote last May: “The notion of ‘help to Ukraine’ is an incorrect term. Despite the images of “money pallets” to be sent to Ukraine, about 72% of this money in general and 86% of military aid will be spent in the United States. The reason for this high percentage is that weapons that go to Ukraine are produced in US factories, payments to US military service members are mostly spending in the United States and even part of humanitarian aid is spent in states United. ”
According to Reuters, Zelensky said the US supplied about $ 67 billion in weapons and $ 31.5 billion in budget support.
