Ukraine has received military assistance from the United States amounting to $46 billion out of the allocated $77 billion since the start of the full-scale invasion, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with Piers Morgan on Tuesday.
"I respond with numbers to the accusations that Ukraine has received 'hundreds of billions' from the United States and that a significant portion of this money has disappeared or ended up somewhere unknown. Ukraine has never received hundreds of billions. Firstly, Ukraine has received support from all American institutions - Congress, the White House - in the form of a military aid package totaling $77 billion over the three years of war. $77 billion in weapons, not cash, were supposed to come to Ukraine. In fact, to date, $46 billion from this package has arrived," Zelensky stated.
During the interview, the Ukrainian president also mentioned the volume of budget support.
"We received $31.5 billion in support for our budget, for important areas such as energy, and many other things. We are very grateful for this," Zelensky said.
Additionally, the Ukrainian president emphasized the necessity of maintaining a million-strong army if Ukraine does not attain NATO membership.
"If not NATO, we will need to maintain a million-strong army. Even the 800,000 we currently have will not be sufficient. Why? Because we are currently seeing their advances, and we do not have enough forces to completely drive them out of our territory. This means we will need to finance a million-strong army. At a minimum, a million-strong army will require enormous resources. We will need to develop production, allocate a large portion of the budget to strengthen our defense, air defense, drones, and so on... All of this requires funding. Where will we get it? It is very, very difficult. Therefore, I believe NATO is the cheapest option," Zelensky explained in the interview with Piers Morgan.