Trump demands Ukraine pay KRW 720 trillion for US support

On the 18th (local time), the US and Russia began high-level talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. This development comes just six days after US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call on the 12th, agreeing to “immediately begin negotiations to end the war.”

However, Ukraine—now in its third year of war since Russia’s invasion in February 2022—was excluded from the initial negotiations. As a result, key Ukrainian demands, such as NATO membership and the recovery of Russian-occupied territories, appear increasingly unlikely. Russia maintains its stance that Ukraine cannot join NATO and refuses to return the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.

Meanwhile, the Telegraph reported on the 17th that President Trump has demanded $500 billion (approximately 720 trillion won) from Ukraine as compensation for US support. According to World Bank data, this amount is roughly 2.8 times Ukraine’s 2023 nominal GDP of $178.8 billion. The Telegraph compared this demand to the Treaty of Versailles, which imposed massive reparations on Germany after World War I, noting that Trump’s demand exceeds even that, as the Versailles reparations amounted to about 1.3 times Germany’s GDP at the time.

The Washington Post reported that major European nations, fearing exclusion from the peace talks alongside Ukraine, are considering forming a multinational force and deploying up to 30,000 troops to Ukraine. However, while France and the UK are actively pushing for military involvement, Germany—facing significant economic challenges—has shown reluctance. Ultimately, there are doubts about whether European countries will take concrete security measures such as troop deployments. At a summit in Paris on the 17th, key European nations reaffirmed their position that they are “ready to provide security guarantees to Ukraine, depending on the level of US support.”


Jin-Woo Shin niceshin@donga.com