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Trump 'not serious' about Ukraine returning $500 billion to US — Zelensky

Earlier, in an interview with Fox News, US President Donald Trump admitted that Ukraine could one day become a part of Russia and did not rule out that he would want to return from this country all the money spent on it by the US government

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump's demand to Ukraine to return $500 billion spent on it by the US government is not serious, Vladimir Zelensky said at a press conference in Kiev.

"We have to figure out this issue with aid, we [Ukraine and the US] have completely different figures. The war has cost us $320 billion. A total of $120 billion was spent by Ukraine, $200 billion was spent by the US and the EU, this was a package of weapons. In total, the US gave us more than $67 billion in arms and $31.5 billion in direct aid to the budget. But this talk about us returning $500 billion [to the US] is not serious," he said.

Earlier, in an interview with Fox News, US President Donald Trump admitted that Ukraine could one day become a part of Russia and did not rule out that he would want to return from this country all the money spent on it by the US government. Trump specified that he would like to receive the equivalent in the form of Ukrainian rare-earth metals worth about $500 billion. Commenting on the US leader's assumption, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a significant part of Ukraine wants to become Russia and has already become Russia, referring to the referendum decision of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions to become part of Russia.

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