US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will ask Europeans to repay the American aid provided to Ukraine under the administration of his predecessor Joe Biden.
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Trump has long demanded that Europeans shoulder more of the cost of Western support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, which began more than four years ago.
“Hundreds of Billions of Dollars was given to Ukraine and NATO, free of charge, that Europe would have paid for – If they were only asked, but we will be asking for that money, though somewhat belatedly!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The American president did not specify which countries he believed should pay.
In his post, Trump also rejected reports that the US military was running low on munitions in its war against Iran.
“We have virtually unlimited amounts of Mid to High Grade Ammunition,” he wrote, adding that munitions are being produced at “levels never seen before.”
Trump said that Washington was building up stockpiles and preparing for contingencies and had temporarily suspended overseas arms sales.
“We are taking (munitions) for ourselves, the U.S.A., rather than selling them to others, but the sales to Allies will soon again, begin,” he added.
By the end of March this year, Congress had made $195 billion (€167 billion) available in spending related to the war in Ukraine, according to the US Inspector General’s office.
The US State Department said in March last year that Washington had “provided $66.9 billion in military assistance since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and approximately $69.7 billion in military assistance since Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014.”
“We have now used the emergency Presidential Drawdown Authority on 55 occasions since August 2021 to provide Ukraine military assistance totalling approximately $31.7 billion from DoD stockpiles,” the department said.
Europe significantly increased its aid allocations to Ukraine earlier this year but the continent still heavily relies on weapons from the US for its military aid, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy said in its Ukraine Support Tracker.
WHO warehouse hit
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation said on Friday that one of its main warehouses in Ukraine had been affected by an overnight air attack, the third such incident in three months.
The WHO warned that it was part of a wider pattern of attacks on humanitarian facilities in Ukraine.
Overnight, “an air attack in Kyiv Oblast affected one of WHO’s main warehouses, storing humanitarian medical needs and supplies,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva.
“Access to the site remains restricted due to heavy smoke and safety concerns, while assessments of possible damage and stock losses are ongoing.”
No WHO personnel were affected, he added.
“The attacks are part of a broader pattern affecting humanitarian operations across the country,” said Lindmeier.
“In 2026, at least 20 attacks have affected warehouses storing humanitarian supplies, including 15 attacks on warehouses holding health-related humanitarian supplies.”
The spokesperson said that over the past three months, three warehouses used by the WHO in different regions of Ukraine had been damaged by airstrikes, destroying essential medical supplies intended for frontline and hard-to-reach areas.
Two weeks ago, an attack destroyed a humanitarian warehouse in Dnipro, resulting in the loss of half of the medical supplies and equipment intended to support an estimated 225,000 people.
And another warehouse used by WHO in the Kyiv Oblast was damaged during a large-scale wave of attacks on the capital and the wider region in July, the spokesperson said.
Lindmeier added that “in my understanding, all warehouses, all UN locations, all WHO locations are deconflicted,” meaning that their whereabouts are clearly communicated to all sides in an armed conflict.
The WHO verifies and records attacks on healthcare but does not attribute blame as it is not an investigation agency.
The UN agency has verified more than 3,000 attacks in Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Health facilities and the health system at large fall under the protection of international humanitarian and rights law.
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