US president Donald Trump has accused ‘ungrateful’ Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky of taking billions in American cash ‘like candy from a baby.’
Trump has been in a bitter feud with Zelensky over the aid that the US has sent his nation since Russia invaded in February 2022 in recent weeks, culminating in Trump pausing all US military funding for Ukraine, and the Ukrainian president being forced to apologise for the spat.
Touting a long-disproved figure for the total amount of money, Trump told Fox News: ‘I just don’t think [Zelensky is] grateful. We gave him $350 billion.
‘It was like taking candy from a baby what he did.
‘He’s a smart guy, and he’s a tough guy, and he took money out of this country under Biden like candy from a baby – it was so easy with that same attitude.’
Trump has been throwing about the $350billion figure around for weeks, but actual estimates for the amount of money sent to Ukraine since 2022 range between $119 billion and $183billion.
The firebrand Republican also tried to head of criticisms that he was not dealing with Russia with the same force as he was with Ukraine.
He claimed he has been ‘very tough with Russia, tougher than anyone has ever been to Russia.
US president Donald Trump (pictured) has accused ‘ungrateful’ Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky of taking billions in American cash ‘like candy from a baby’
Trump has been in a bitter feud with Zelensky (pictured) over the aid that the US has sent his nation since Russia invaded in February 2022 in recent weeks
The aftermath of the Russian assault on Dobropillia, Donetsk region, which killed over 10 people
Servicemen from the artillery crew of the special forces police battalion of the 128th Separate Territorial Defence Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire a 2S22 Bohdana self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops at a frontline on March 5, 2025
‘I stopped the Russian pipeline, I’m the one that put sanctions on Russia, I’m the one that gave the Javelins, but I get along well with Putin.
‘Nobody has been tougher on Russia than Donald Trump and they know that.’
During the interview, he also admitted he believes that nuclear weapons are the greatest threat to humanity, starkly warning that the use of ‘monster’ warheads may ‘end the world’.
Trump, in charge of the second-largest nuclear stockpile in the world, told the broadcaster: ‘The level of destruction is beyond anything you can imagine.’
He said: ‘We spend a lot of money of nuclear weapons – the level of destruction is beyond anything you can imagine.
‘It’s just bad that you have to spend all this money on something that if it’s used, it’s probably the end of the world.’
The Republican added that the threat of climate change was nothing compared to the risks posed by nuclear weapons, claiming that a nuclear war ‘could happen tomorrow.’
Trump explained: ‘I watched Biden for years say the existential threat is from the climate. I said ‘no’.
‘The greatest is sitting on shelves in various countries called ‘nuclear weapons’ that are big monsters that can blow your heads off for miles and miles and miles.’
A Ukrainian fireman attempts to cool the temperature of a burnt-out building in Bohodukhiv, in the Kharkiv region
Firefighters in Dobropillia, which was bombarded with 11 strikes, attempt to extinguish a fire on residential buildings in the town in Donetsk
Trump’s scolding of Zelensky came as it was revealed that Vladimir Putin has lost nearly 900,000 troops since the start of his invasion of Ukraine.
At least 885,130 Russian soldiers have been killed since February 24, 2022, according to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
Putin’s army also lost more than 10,000 tanks, 370 airplanes, 331 helicopters, 28,362 drones, 28 ships and boats, as well as one submarine.
This comes as Russia lost over 1150 soldiers in a single bloody day on the Ukrainian frontline this week.
Pravda’s online tally of total estimated losses on day 1108 of the war displays the shocking figure, after it was revealed last month that tyrant president Putin is set to lose a million soldiers to death or injury in its war in Ukraine by May.
The current trajectory of losses coincides with Russia’s so-called Victory Day on May 9 when Putin will gather with his Kremlin henchmen to watch the annual military parade in Red Square.
In the next two months, Moscow could lose another 115,000 bringing that total close to nearly a million.
But peace talks appear to have stalled as Putin ignored Donald Trump’s warnings to stop ‘pounding Ukraine’ and fired a huge barrage of missile strikes killed 20 in Ukraine and left dozens more injured.
