On Wednesday, RIA Novosti reported that since the start of the war between Ukraine and Russia, data from the US Treasury and the Ukrainian Finance Ministry shows that Ukraine has been significantly increasing its holdings of US Government debt.

Between February 2022 and the end of September of 2023 Ukraine increased its holdings of US debt 180%, or by $10.7 billion, according to RIA’s analysis of the data. Presently Kiev holds $24.5 billion in US debt, the highest amount it has held since at least 2011. That is up from $13.8 billion in US debt which Ukraine held at the end of last winter. RIA’s data showed Kiev’s holdings were at their lowest in the middle of the summer of 2022, when it only held $7.9 billion in US debt.

Over this period, an analysis of the data shows that Ukraine received $22.9 billion in US financial assistance. That would mean that over that period Ukraine took about half of the aid it received and turned around and purchased US Treasuries with it, effectively giving half of the aid it received back to the US government in return for regular interest payments on it.

At the same time, Kiev continues to receive billions in military aid on top of that, as just Tuesday a new $100 million package was announced. However those types of military aid packages appear set to begin to diminish in size, as the Pentagon runs out of funding for Ukraine, and Congress appears deadlocked on the issue despite a request from the White House for a $100 billion combined aid bill with money for Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine tied together.

Meanwhile Russia is calling on the Western allies of Ukraine to stop injecting military aid into the conflict to escalate it, and instead focus on bringing about peace talks which would bring to a close, a war that Russian President Vladimir Putin has referred to a a “tragedy.”