By Niamh Harris
Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky has warned that his country will not be repaying the assistance it received from the US since the start of the conflict with Russia.
He has denied that the billions of dollars given to his country by the US government were a loan, insisting that they were actually a “grant” and that the US President’s estimate was grossly exaggerated anyway.
Trump has been ramping up his demands that Kiev reimburse Washington for all the aid provided since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. He has argued that if the country is short on cash, it should sign over the rights to its natural resources as a form of compensation. Zelensky however, has refused, apparently deeming the terms too unfavorable.
RT reports: Zelensky however, has refused, apparently deeming the terms too unfavorable.
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Speaking at the ‘Ukraine. Year – 2025’ forum in Kiev on Sunday, Zelensky stated that “Ukraine received $100 billion [in aid] from the US, not $350, not $500, not $700,” stressing that he was “not ready to recognize even $100 billion” as debt. He claimed that he had reached an agreement with former US President Joe Biden that the money was being provided as a grant, and that no repayment had been expected.
Zelensky stressed that if the Trump administration is not ready to give Ukraine a blank check, Kiev is prepared to enter into a “new agreement,” and that it should be considered carefully, in order for the parties to “remain friends and partners.”
“I think I’m justified in my desire for dialogue [with the US],” the Ukrainian leader said, emphasizing that “I do not sign something which ten generations of Ukrainians would have to repay.”
According to Zelensky, the original deal on Ukraine’s rare earths drafted by the Trump administration made no mention of security guarantees to Kiev and was therefore turned down. He claimed that his negotiators were making good progress in talks with the Americans, who had supposedly dropped their initial $500 billion demand.
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Meanwhile, in an article on Saturday, the New York Times, citing anonymous Ukrainian officials, claimed that Washington’s revised version of the accord appeared “even tougher” than its previous iteration.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Trump warned that “we’re going to either sign a deal or there’s gonna be a lot of problems with [Ukraine].” He clarified that he expected Kiev to acquiesce “in the next fairly short period of time,” lamenting that “we’re spending our treasure on… a country that’s very, very far away.”
According to the 2024 World Economic Forum report, Ukraine “holds immense potential as a major global supplier of critical raw materials” that could be “essential” for defense, the technology sector, and green energy. Much of those resources are, however, located in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, which joined Russia in 2022.
