President Joe Biden boasted Wednesday at a NATO gathering in Vilnius, Lithuania, that the United States has given more money to Ukraine than all other nations combined.
Biden and Zelensky gave brief remarks before a bilateral meeting between their administrations at the summit, with Zelensky thanking Americans for $43 billion in military aid.
“I want to thank to all Americans. We understand that it is more than $43 billions for today. It is big support, I understand this is all your money, but you have to know that you spend this money not just for fighting. You spend this money for our lives. And I think that we save the lives for Europe and all the world,” he said.
Biden thanked Zelensky for acknowledging American support, and said:
I think we’ve given more than any other nation combined in terms of assistance and cost and the American people are supportive. They’re supportive, because they know it’s about you, it’s about more than you, it’s about innocent people around the world, and the absolute brutality with which Putin is acting and the Russians are moving on, it’s like something out of the 14th Century, the way they’re acting.
According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the U.S. has actually given more than $78 billion in government aid since January 24, 2022, including more than $43 billion in military aid.
A chart showed that U.S. support to Ukraine has indeed dwarfed what other countries have given.