Rand Paul says US spent $5 mln on influencers in Ukraine
3 Min Read
According to the US Senator, some members of the Senate spent $100,000 sending designers from Ukraine to a fashion show in Paris.
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Senator Rand Paul speaks during a committee hearing on October 31, 2023. (AP)
The Biden administration paid roughly $5 million to social media influencers in Ukraine, US Senator Rand Paul asserted Thursday.
"$4.8 million spent in Ukraine for social media influencers," Paul stated on the Senate floor, adding that "the members of the Senate who voted for this spent several $100,000 sending designers from Ukraine to the fashion show in Paris."
Paul drew a parallel between Ukraine and Egypt, noting that presidential elections had been postponed since Volodymyr Zelensky called them off.
US President Donald Trump described Wednesday his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky as a "modestly successful comedian" and a "dictator without elections," warning that Ukraine risks losing everything unless he moves swiftly toward a peace agreement with Russia.
"He [Zelensky] refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’ A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left," Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He asserted that his administration was successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia, something he claimed only he and his team could achieve.
"Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and 'TRUMP,' will never be able to settle."
Trump concluded, "I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues….."
Less than a month into his presidency, Trump has already reshaped US policy on Ukraine and Russia. He has ended Washington’s efforts to isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine, initiating a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and facilitating high-level talks between senior American and Russian officials in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
Trump has stated that he may meet Putin later this month. The Kremlin, however, noted that such a meeting could require more time to arrange.
Meanwhile, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund has indicated that several US companies could resume operations in Russia as early as the second quarter of the year.
