President Donald Trump has just admitted he withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in congressionally-approved military aid to Ukraine, but he has a new reason to defend his actions. The president claims he only ordered the aid to be withheld – which he did just days before his infamous telephone call with Ukraine's president – because, he claimed, "other nations" need to help support Ukraine too.
“My complaint has always been, and I’d withhold again and I’ll continue to withhold until such time as Europe and other nations contribute to Ukraine because they’re not doing it,” Trump told reporters Tuesday, as The Washington Post reported.
Trump withheld nearly $400 million in military aid from Ukraine, and it appears he did so to force Ukraine to dig up dirt on his top political opponent, Joe Biden, and Biden's son Hunter. There does not appear to be any evidence that there is any dirt on the Bidens.
"Very important, I want other countries to put up money," Trump also said, NBC News states, adding Trump "said he wants Germany, France and other nations to contribute more funds.."
"I think it's unfair that we put up the money," Trump complained. "Then other people call me. They said, 'Oh, let it go.' And I let it go. But we paid the money, the money was paid."
Trump's claim is false.
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For example, in April PBS Newshour reported NATO's commitment to Ukraine.
"The North Atlantic Treaty Organization turned 70 years old Thursday. As the the foreign ministers of its member nations gathered in Washington, one their actions was to endorse a support package for Ukraine, now in the fifth year of a war with Russia."
In December last year the International Monetary Fund approved "a new $3.9 billion loan agreement for Ukraine," RFERL reported. Also in December, "the World Bank announced a $750 billion loan guarantee to help Ukraine raise an estimated $1 billion in debt on international markets."
One month earlier, in November of 2018, the Ukraine government's website reported "Germany is one of the largest donors of international aid to Ukraine, the amount of which has exceeded €600 million [about $660 million] since 2002."
And in 2016, "Ukraine's finance minister says the cash-strapped country expects to receive up to $10 billion from foreign sources this year," RFERL also reported.