Donald Trump just repeated his claim that the US has given more military aid to Ukraine than Europe – even though it does not at all stand up to scrutiny.

The US president told Congress on Tuesday: ”[Joe] Biden has authorised more money in this fight than Europe has spent.”

This is demonstrably untrue. The US may be the largest single donor to Ukraine, but it is overshadowed when compared to the entirety of Europe.

As the Kiel Institute for the World Economy says, “Europe as a whole has clearly overtaken the US in terms of Ukraine aid”.

The US has allocated £94.6bn in overall aid, compared to £109bn from the continent, according to the researchers.

The Institute also notes that the US’s role began to decline in mid-2023 when the US Congress blocked any new aid bills.

The amount sent to Ukraine did briefly increase last year, but Trump’s decision this week to temporarily “pause” aid going into the country will only widen the gap between Europe and the US’s contributions.

But the president has stuck to his lie that the US contributes more than Europe.

In fact, he is now looking to secure a mineral-sharing deal with Ukraine so that the US can be repaid for its military aid.

This is not the first time the US president has made this claim. 

When French president Emmanuel Macron visited the White House last week, Trump told the press the US had provided most of the aid, around $350bn (£272bn), to Kyiv, while Europe had provided a smaller amount as a loan.

But Macron said: “No, in fact, to be frank, we paid. We paid 60% of the total effort. Like the US, loans, guarantees, grants, and we provided real money.”

He added: “If at the end of the negotiation, they [Ukraine] are ready to give it to us, super, it will loan at the end of the day, and we will have paid for that.”

Keir Starmer also corrected Trump over the same claim during their own joint appearance two days later.

While the US president told the press that it is “very unfair” that the US will not be getting all of its money back unlike Europe, Starmer cut in: “Quite a bit of ours was gifted, it was given, there were some loans, but mainly it was gifted actually.”

The prime minister did refrain from correcting the president over the total amount of aid sent to Ukraine, though.

Crucially, the Institute also notes that all of this aid is comparatively low when looking at each country’s contribution as a measure of the gross domestic product.

The UK, the US and Germany have mobilised less than 0.2% of their annual GDP, while France, Italy and Spain have offered about 0.1%.

The head of the Ukraine Support Tracker at the Kiel Institute, Christoph Trebesch, said: “When looking at the government budgets in most European donor countries, Ukraine aid over the last 3 years looks more like a minor political ‘pet project’ rather than a major fiscal effort.”