Trump wants return on Ukraine aid: ‘We’re getting our money back’

US President Donald Trump has said that he wants the United States to “get back” money spent on aiding Ukraine during its ongoing conflict with Russia.

Trump on Saturday proposed a deal in which Ukraine would grant the US access to its mineral and oil resources as compensation for the billions of dollars in wartime aid provided.

“I want them to give us something for all of the money that we put up. We’re asking for rare earth and oil, anything we can get,” he told delegates at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland.

“We’re going to get our money back because it’s just not fair. And we will see, but I think we’re pretty close to a deal, and we better be close because that has been a horrible situation,” Trump added.

Since February 2022, the US Congress has appropriated $183 billion for Ukraine, including more than $66 billion in security assistance, according to the Pentagon and Ukraine Oversight, the interagency group tasked with presenting reports to Congress.

The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, has said that he is “not ready” to sign that would have granted US companies 50% ownership of the country’s mineral resources, despite growing US pressure.

The Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that the agreement is “unilateral” and Ukraine needs assurances from the US first.

“In the form in which the draft is now, the president is not ready to accept, we are still trying to make changes and add constructiveness,” Ukrainian officials said.

US Special Envoy to Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg, who met Zelensky earlier this week, said the Ukrainian president understood signing a deal with the US was “critical.”

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Trump has intensified his criticism of the Ukrainian leader, branding Zelensky “a dictator without elections,” saying he has squandered opportunities for peace with Russia.

President Trump insisted that Ukraine had no grounds to complain about its exclusion from the US-Russian talks held in Riyadh on Tuesday.

He maintained that Ukraine’s absence from the discussions was a result of its failure to capitalize on earlier opportunities to broker peace with Russia.

In response to years of military and political provocations by the US and European countries, Russia began its special operations in Ukraine in 2022.

Russia has managed to gain control of a fifth of Ukraine and has been slowly advancing in the east for months. Ukraine’s military, supported by the US and European countries, grapples with manpower shortages and tries to hold to a chunk of territory in western Russia.

Russia has demanded an end to the West’s military and political provocations on its borders and Ukraine’s permanent neutrality under any peace deal.

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