US Reduces Ukraine’s Debt for War Aid

After a round of talks in Washington last week, President Donald Trump‘s administration has reduced its estimate of the aid the United States has provided to Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion began from $300 billion to about $100 billion, the people said. That brings it closer to Ukraine’s own estimate of more than $90 billion, Bloomberg has reported.

The Trump administration is pushing for Kyiv to reach a deal to share profits from future Ukrainian investment projects, including minerals and infrastructure. Washington sees this as compensation for the tens of billions of dollars in weapons and other aid provided to the nation under former President Joe Biden since Russia began its full-scale invasion more than three years ago.

Partnership Agreement

The partnership agreement would give the United States first claim on profits transferred to a special reconstruction investment fund that would be controlled by Washington. Kyiv is pushing for better terms and refuses to recognize past U.S. aid as debt. The Ukrainian government declined to comment before the deal was signed. The White House and Treasury Department did not respond to requests for comment. The technical talks were very productive, a Treasury Department official said, adding that they looked forward to concluding the talks soon.

Asked about the status of the talks on Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Ukraine submitted a counterproposal over the weekend and that talks were still ongoing. “We’re very, very close,” Bessent told Bloomberg News in Buenos Aires. “It could even be signed this week.” Talks between technical teams on Friday and Saturday were constructive, one of the sources said. But the United States still approached the deal as an opportunity to reimburse Ukraine with proceeds from a fund, the size of which is still unspecified in the latest draft, the official said.

The Trump administration remains reluctant to commit to future investments in the fund — a key interest for Kyiv in any such deal — and is putting the issue on hold for discussion, the people said. Instead, it has continued to insist that U.S. spending on Ukraine during the war should be considered Washington’s contribution to the fund, they said on condition of anonymity because the talks are private. Ukrainian negotiators have had a hard time dissuading their American counterparts from that approach, which has underpinned some of Washington’s most draconian demands, the sources said.

Red Line

Kyiv needs to tread carefully. An Oval Office scuffle between Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February led to the breakdown of a previous agreement, prompting the United States to briefly suspend aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine. On Monday, Trump again blamed Zelensky for the war in Ukraine, amid questions about which side is responsible for the failure to reach a ceasefire. Earlier, the US president also expressed frustration with the pace of negotiations with Russia, which has so far refused to accept his ceasefire proposal as a starting point for broader peace talks. Meanwhile, Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, told Fox News on Monday that he sees “an opportunity to transform the Russian-American relationship with some very compelling commercial opportunities that I think will also provide real stability in the region.” Witkoff met with Putin for nearly five hours in St. Petersburg last week. The stakes are also high for Kyiv’s bid to join the European Union, as any preferences for the US could run afoul of its single market rules. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal last week called his country’s EU goal “red line number one” for a deal.