Where is Ukraine getting its aid from? As Zelensky faces battle to win further funding

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv‘s allies have committed billions upon billions in military and humanitarian aid to help Ukrainian Armed Forces fight off Russian occupiers.

But as the war drags into its 19th month, President Volodymyr Zelensky is seemingly facing an uphill battle convincing both his neighbours and Western allies to continue apace. 

The Biden administration’s latest request for a fresh $24billion aid package is the subject of a bitter spending battle that could see Congress trigger a government shutdown with skeptical Republican lawmakers wary of sending yet more funds to Kyiv. 

Some Republicans say the money could be better spent on US border security, while there are also concerns about the pace of Kyiv’s counteroffensive and that corruption in Ukraine means the money will be squandered. 

Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said this week his country ‘is no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine’ amid a row over Poland‘s ban on Ukrainian grain imports to protect the interests of its farmers.

With this in mind, MailOnline recaps the level of funding sent to Ukraine so far. 

The US is far and away Ukraine’s biggest benefactor. 

According to the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker – which follows and quantifies military, financial and humanitarian aid given to Ukraine since January 24, 2022 – the US has sent €69.5billion ($74billion) to Kyiv, €42billion ($44.7billion) of which came in the form of weapons systems, armoured vehicles, tanks and ammunition.

The support tracker’s data has been published up until July 31, 2023. If Biden’s $24billion package is approved by Congress, US total aid to Ukraine will begin closing in on $100billion.  

America’s aid provision is only outstripped by the EU as a collective, with European institutions providing €84.8billion – though almost €80billion of this was financial aid rather than military. 

The Biden administration is also preparing to provide a parting gift to Ukraine following President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s White House visit, in the form of long-range ATACM missiles to strike distant Russian forces.

President Biden has told Zelensky that Washington will provide Kyiv with ATACMS long-range missiles, NBC News reported on Friday, citing three U.S. officials and a congressional official.

That comes a day after Zelensky visited Washington, pleading with lawmakers in the Capitol and during a meeting with Biden for more weapons to protect Ukraine’s skies as it seeks to fight back Russia’s invading force.

That came on a trip when House Republicans are opposing Biden’s proposed $24 billion aid package for Ukraine, and where House Speaker Kevin McCarthy declined to appear with Zelensky in public after saying before Zelensky’s trip that ‘I have questions for him.’ 

‘Where’s the accountability on the money we’ve already spent?’ McCarthy asked, before McCarthy met with the full Senate but did not address the full House or the GOP Conference.

Besides the US, Germany, the United Kingdom and Norway have been the next most significant aid providers for Ukraine, giving €20.9billion, €13.8billion and €7.4billion respectively. 

In relative terms, however, Ukraine’s smaller supporters and Russian neighbours like Estonia and Lithuania are contributing a greater share of their GDP to the war effort. 

Estonia’s aid to Ukraine has totalled some 1.3 percent of GDP, with Lithuania sharing 1.2 percent. Poland has given military aid commitments equalling 0.5 percent of its GDP, is one of Kyiv‘s main weapons suppliers and also hosts some one million Ukrainian refugees, who have benefited from various kinds of state aid.

The US meanwhile, despite contributing the overwhelming majority of military aid to Kyiv, has only donated 0.2 per cent of its GDP. 

Canada meanwhile has provided Ukraine with almost $9billion in military and other aid since the Russian invasion began, and is home to the world’s second largest Ukrainian diaspora after Russia.

Ottawa’s $8.9billion in aid to Kyiv has included more than $1.8billion in military aid, including Leopard 2 tanks, air defence and artillery systems, anti-tank weapons, drones and other equipment.

It has also trained more than 36,000 Ukrainian soldiers.

Zelensky was in Ottawa today to drum up more support after meeting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, capping off a North American tour which saw him face a skeptical US Congress. 

Yesterday Zelensky confronted the issue of potentially fracturing political support in the United States for his country’s demands for more arms to push back the Russian invasion.

‘We’re with you and we’re staying with you,’ Biden told him after their top teams met at the White House.

Wearing his trademark olive green military-style shirt, Zelensky said Ukraine ‘has exactly what our soldiers need’ after Biden announced a new package of US military aid, including sophisticated air defence weapons.

But behind the optics – firm handshakes across a grand cabinet table and shows of solidarity in the Oval Office – was the reality that Zelensky’s second wartime trip to Washington was far tougher than the first.

He received a hero’s welcome when he visited in December, but this time, he spent his closed-door meetings in the US Congress desperately trying to overcome growing war fatigue among Republicans.

Hardline Republicans are threatening to block Biden’s request for a fresh $24billion aid package for Ukraine, and it has now become caught up in a bitter spending battle that could spark a US government shutdown.

Biden said alongside Zelensky that there was ‘no alternative’ to backing the Ukraine funding, adding that he was ‘counting on the good judgment of the United States Congress.’

The US president said the first US M1 Abrams tanks will arrive in Ukraine ‘next week,’ boosting Kyiv’s forces as they battle Russian troops in a slow-moving counteroffensive.

The latest US package would also strengthen Ukraine’s air defence capability, crucial at a time when the country faces repeated Russian missile and drone attacks.

It came as there were reports of Ukraine striking two Russian ships in Crimea on Saturday.

A pro-Russia channel said six Neptune missiles were fired and while four were allegedly intercepted, two found their target. 

On Friday, Ukrainians used a British-made Storm Shadow missile to hit Putin‘s Black Sea Fleet HQ in Ukraine.

 Senior Russian commanders were killed in the Ukrainian missile strike, it was also revealed.

At least nine people were killed and 16 wounded in the attack in Sevastopol, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov.

Russia has refrained from giving details on the killed and wounded, and its main news bulletins failed to mention the humiliating strike in annexed Crimea.

Russian air defences were again today at work in and around Sevastopol, the main naval port in the peninsula.

There were reports of incoming missiles and that one missile had been shot down.

Russian war cheerleaders are demanding reprisal attacks on Ukrainian command posts.

Rybar Telegram channel warned: ‘As long as there are no strikes on control and command centres, the intensity of the AFU attacks will increase.

‘Meanwhile, in Kyiv, the work of all Ukrainian structures responsible for regular raids, such as the GUR and the SBU [intelligence services] , is proceeding without interruption.’

War analyst Sergei Mardan, a columnist for Komsomolskaya Pravda, said: ‘The strike to the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol is a crushing blow to the entire Russian elite, which is seriously committed to freezing the conflict in the autumn of 2023.

‘They still don’t want to fight.

‘They agree to any, the most shameful conditions of a truce. 

‘They still consider [the start of war on] February 24, 2022, a catastrophic mistake by Putin and intend to do everything to convince him of this.

‘They see a ”limited” military defeat of Russia as the ideal way.’

He claimed this was the wrong route for Russia.

‘Our enemies will force us to fight, if only because they do not agree to a ‘limited’ defeat.

‘They intend to defeat the Russian army and bring the Russian government to its knees.’

Spymaster Budanov told Voice of America: ‘Among the wounded is the commander of the group, Colonel-General (Alexander) Romanchuk, in a very serious condition.’

He added: ‘The Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General (Oleg) Tsekov, is unconscious.

‘The number of injured regular servicemen who are not employees of the headquarters is still being determined.

‘These are military personnel who are on duty, security, and so on — they are not included in the list that I announced.’

Some reports say Black Sea Fleet commander Admiral Viktor Sokolov was also hit and killed, but there has been no confirmation.

There were suggestions he was ‘missing’.

Sokolov was handpicked by Putin a year ago to take over from Admiral Igor Osipov after the humiliating sinking of the fleet’s flagship, the cruiser Moskva, sunk by a Ukrainian Neptune missile.

Romanchuk is commander of Russian forces in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, and was promoted to the rank of colonel-general in 2023.

Tsekov is the commander of the 200th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, part of the Coastal Forces of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy.

Budanov declined to confirm Russian claims that Storm Shadow missiles – provided to Kyiv by Britain and France – had been used to the fleet HQ.

‘Here I have to refrain from answering, I think you should understand me,’ he said.

Tales of heroism have also been coming out of Ukraine.

Jack Knight is a British military volunteer in Ukraine and a former mine clearer with the Royal Engineers whose great-great grandfather rescued a wounded man from no man’s land in WWI.

Knight saved eight Ukrainian troops in a daring 14-hour rescue mission while taking fire.

He even stepped into a minefield in complete darkness to save four Ukrainians who wandered into it while carrying their dead companion on a stretcher.

His brave ancestor William Young won the Victoria Cross for his antics and saw a street named after him in Preston.

Knight told The Telegraph: ‘Hopefully, my great-great grandad will think I’ve done my bit. Every bit of that rescue literally felt like a suicide mission.’

At one point he even set down his weapons and grenades to reduce the weight he was carrying. When he was then faced with being just 20 metres away from a group of Russian troops as he took cover behind a wall, he realised he had a problem.

He picked up two rocks and prepared for a fight to the death.

Knight said: ‘I figured I’d throw the rocks at them – they’d have thought at first that they were grenades, which might have distracted them enough for me to charge one of them, grab his gun and spray a few rounds.

‘I probably wouldn’t have survived but if I could inflict some casualties they’d maybe pull back rather than carry on towards our lines.’

He has since been nominated for a medal for his valiant efforts in the battle alongside Canadian fellow volunteer Wayne Hallatt.