At the end of February 2025, reports began to spread on social networks that the Ukrainian delegation arrived in the United States at its own expense to sign a treaty on rare earth metals - allegedly for the first time, the White House refused to cover the costs of inviting foreign guests. We have verified the accuracy of this story.

Publications that the Ukrainian side had to independently pay for the visit related to the signing of the agreement on rare earth metals were widely circulated on February 28, the day of the meeting at the White House. Judging by them, the Donald Trump administration for the first time in history refused to cover the expenses of the invited delegation. After the altercation that took place in the Oval Office, the Ukrainian side allegedly had to urgently leave the country at its own expense. The primary source of this information is the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal.

The news was shared by Telegram channels “Ne.Sugar"(274,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), Colonelcassad (249,000), "Sheikh Tamir"(129,000), "First People's | News"(113,000), "Oleg Tsarev"(101,000), "Cat Kostyan"(90,000), "Z-News | Army Z 18+"(71,000), etc.

President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky came to Washington on February 28 to sign a rare earths mining agreement. This trip became known a couple of days before the event; on February 26, the White House officially confirmed invitation. During a meeting between Zelensky, US President Donald Trump and US Vice President J.D. Vance happened dispute, after which the Ukrainian leader left the White House early.

Despite the fact that the meeting did not go according to plan, right up to the conflict in the Oval Office, the host side behaved towards their Ukrainian colleagues politely and in accordance with diplomatic protocols. Trump personally met Zelensky at the entrance to the White House, and at the beginning of the meeting statedthat it was an honor for him to host his colleague in Washington. This show of respect is common practice, but it is unlikely that the meeting could begin as usual after the first-ever refusal to cover the costs of the delegation's participation.

When planning official visits of heads of state to the United States, the receiving party usually beret bear the costs associated with the delegation’s stay in the country, including accommodation, internal transport and organization of official events. The Visits Division of the US State Department is responsible for planning. However, there is no information in open sources about cases when the administration refused to cover the expenses of any foreign delegation.

As evidence that the Trump administration decided not to pay for Zelensky’s visit at the end of February, a screenshot of a Wall Street Journal note is being circulated on social networks. According to the image, the material is called Ukraine paid for its delegation's visit and stay in the U.S. (“Ukraine paid for the visit and stay of its delegation in the United States”). The subtitle states that this is the first time the Trump administration has refused to cover the expenses of a foreign delegation. Search by keywords on the official website of the publication showed, that today there are no articles with such a title. There is no such information in the publication’s verified accounts on social networks (X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube).

It can be assumed that the WSJ hid the article from its website. The visit of the President of Ukraine to the United States became known a couple of days before the event. Considering that the screenshot began to circulate on February 28, the day of the meeting itself, a note with such a title could have been published on the same day. Judging by the screenshot, the news was posted in the Policy subsection. On the Internet Archive preserved a copy of this page for the 28th, it was made at 13:56 GMT (16:56 Moscow time), that is, even before Zelensky arrived to the White House. The archived version also does not contain a publication with this title.

There is also no information in other authoritative sources that the expenses of the Ukrainian delegation were not covered. All this suggests that the Wall Street Journal screenshot appears to have been doctored.

Fabricated image for the first time appeared in the Telegram channel “Odessa for victory” on February 28 at 16:17 Moscow time, after which it began to spread across other accounts. Later that evening, the same fake screenshot also spread to English-language accounts on the X social network, some publications received hundreds of thousands of views. Channel “Odessa for Victory” regularly meets in analyzes “Verified” as a distributor and primary source of fake information.

A few days later, the same story spread again on social networks - this time with a link to a video allegedly created by Bloomberg. On March 2–3, Telegram channels posted a story stating that for the first time, the Ukrainian delegation paid for its own arrival and stay in the United States. It also contained additional information allegedly from Southern Utah University professor Howard Shi Min Hu. Judging by the video, he said that such meetings usually cost the American budget $4–7 million. This recording was not spread so actively - it appeared in the channels “Odessa for victory"(5000 views), "Dill fresh" (5000) and "Spicier"(3000).

Viral video. Source: social networks

However, the video also turned out to be fake: Bloomberg never didn't publish similar information and this video in their verified accounts in YouTube, Instagram, Facebook. Howard Shi Ming Hu, who is mentioned in the video as an expert, is indeed professor Southern Utah University. He teaches the basics of hotel business, specializing in international cuisine and cookery. It is unlikely that such specialization could be useful when selecting an expert to comment on the refusal to pay for the visit of the Ukrainian delegation to the United States. However, “Verified” was unable to find any evidence in open sources that Hu gave comments to Bloomberg.

Like the WSJ screenshot, this video is the first published channel “Odessa for Victory” on March 2 at 11:33 Moscow time, but the video did not go beyond Russian-language Telegram channels.

Thus, authoritative American publications did not report that the Trump administration, for the first time in history, refused to cover the expenses of the Ukrainian delegation for its stay in the United States. Both the WSJ screenshot and the Bloomberg video are fake.

Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons/The White House