Factcheck: Washington Post false claims about size of US aid to Ukraine

The Washington Post’s article “A look at the amount of U.S. spending powering Ukraine’s defense” published August 4, 2023, used distorted numbers and made unsubstantiated claims about the size of U.S. aid to Ukraine since the launch of Russia’s large-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. The Post’s numbers were reproduced in hundreds of publications around the world. There are six main claims, none of which are supported by official data from both the U.S. and Ukrainian governments.

There are several false statements that will be addressed individually within this paragraph:

“Besides the $43.1 billion on military aid, which represents 65.1 percent of U.S. aid to Ukraine, the United States has provided about $20.5 billion in budget support for Ukraine since the start of the war and more than $2.6 billion to support displaced people, including refugees, and other vulnerable populations within and outside the country. In total, the U.S. has sent Ukraine $66.2 billion in military, financial and humanitarian aid.”

Claim 1:“Besides the $43.1 billion on military aid, which represents 65.1 percent of U.S. aid to Ukraine…”

False. The actual U.S. military assistance delivered to Ukraine is $18.8 billion.

It appears that the authors of the Post article do not understand the differences in the legal nature and, therefore, in the amount of assistance provided at various stages –between commitment and delivery. The U.S. has committed to $43 billion in military aid, but the last sentence of the quoted paragraph states the U.S. has “sent” the aid.

In reality, $18.8 billion of U.S. military aid has actually been delivered to Ukraine. This is the result of summing up three components:

• $23.5 billion in military aid delivered via the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) channel
• Subtract $6.2 billion due to the Pentagon overvaluing aid sent via the PDA channel
• $1.5 billion dollars provided via the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) and Foreign Military Financing (FMF) channels.

Thus, U.S. military aid actually delivered to Ukraine, as of the end of July 2023, amounts to $18.8 billion.

Claim 2: “…the United States has provided about $20.5 billion in budget support for Ukraine since the start of the war…”

The actual U.S. economic assistance to Ukraine is $19.1 billion.

According to the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, the total US economic assistance actually received by Ukraine for 2022 and for 7 months of 2023 amounts to $19.1 billion, not $20.5 billion, as claimed by the Post.

Claim 3: “…and more than $2.6 billion to support displaced people, including refugees, and other vulnerable populations within and outside the country.”

False. U.S. Humanitarian Assistance to Refugees and Displaced Persons is not aid to the state of Ukraine.

Humanitarian aid is not provided to foreign government agencies, but directly to people, therefore, it is not included in the volume of assistance to certain nation states. Such assistance is accounted for separately, as evidenced, for example, by the U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants, the so-called “Greenbook”, regularly published by the U.S. Agency for International Assistance (USAID).

Claim 4: “In total, the U.S. has sent Ukraine $66.2 billion in military, financial and humanitarian aid.”

False. Total U.S. aid actually provided to Ukraine is $37.9 billion

All aggregate (military and economic) assistance actually provided by the United States to Ukraine – both actually delivered to Ukraine (military assistance) and wired to the accounts of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine (economic assistance) – in the period from February 24, 2022, to July 31, 2023, amounts to $37.9 billion:

• military aid – $18.8 billion dollars, not $43.1 billion;
• economic aid – $19.1 billion dollars, not $20.5 billion;
• all military and economic assistance – $37.9 billion, not $66.2 billion.

Claim 5: “That’s more than the U.S. distributes in aid to any other country….experts view the amount as a massive investment in a U.S. ally not seen since at least World War II.”

 Unsubstantiated. The joint portal of the U.S. Department of State and USAID contains an official database on the volume of assistance provided by the U.S. government to foreign nations from 1947 to 2022 (military aid) and from 1946 to 2023 (economic aid). Based on these data, the following tables were compiled and illustrative graphs were created (all numbers in billions of constant U.S. dollars in 2022 prices).

1. Largest recipients of US military assistance in 1947-2022, $bn in 2022 prices

2. Largest recipients of U.S. economic assistance in 1947-2022, $bn in 2022 prices

3. Largest recipients of U.S. total assistance (military and economic ones) in 1947-2022, $bn in 2022 prices

As the above data show, the U.S. aid provided to Ukraine, by the standards of the post-war period, is neither outrageous nor unprecedented. In terms of post-World War II aid, Ukraine ranks:

• in terms of military aid – at 14th place;
• in terms of economic assistance – at 27th place;
• in terms of total military and economic assistance – at 19th place.

The aid provided to Ukraine is several times, and in some cases by an order of magnitude, less than the amount of aid given by the U.S. government to such nations as Israel, Egypt, Afghanistan, India, South Vietnam, South Korea, Turkey, Iraq, Greece, Taiwan, UK, France.

Claim 6: “…experts view the amount as a massive investment in a U.S. ally not seen since at least World War II. ‘These are off-the-charts numbers,’ said Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He liked the figures to U.S. commitments to European countries at the end of World War II.

False. The most intensive U.S. military and economic assistance to 16 countries of Western Europe, the main part of which is known as the “Marshall Plan,” was carried out for 8 years – from 1946 to 1953. The total volume of assistance provided by the United States during this period amounted to (in constant 2022 prices):

• United Kingdom – $82.7 billion;
• France – $68.5 billion;
• Germany – $44.9 billion;
• Italy – $40.0 billion.

As noted above, all U.S. military and economic assistance to Ukraine from 2022-2023 was $37.9 billion –less than any one of those four countries.

It should be noted that U.S. assistance to Western countries in post–WWII Europe was provided when those nations were in peace (with the exception of Greece and Turkey). Assistance to Ukraine is currently being delivered during the hot stage of a large-scale war, where their aggressor is a superpower that, by all accounts, has the second largest military potential in the world.

Bottom line

The Washington Post’s figures on U.S. assistance to Ukraine were unsubstantiated by official sources, significantly inflated, and misleading, as were as false claims made on their basis.