US President Joe Biden signed the Lend-Lease Act for Ukraine on May 9, 2022, the sacred Victory Day for Russians.
However, in practice, the Lend-Lease mechanism was never fully used. Kyiv and Washington did not conclude an agreement that would spell out all the terms and volumes of military aid. In addition, the law was only in effect for fiscal years 2022 and 2023. And in October 2023, the Lend-Lease Act expired. The American authorities were supposed to extend it for 2024, but they did not.
In 2024, US presidential candidate Donald Trump opposed the level of military aid provided by the Biden administration. At the same time, Trump said he was open to the idea of Lend-Lease and called on other allies to do more to help Ukraine.
Now watching
On February 10, 2025, Republican Congressman Joe Wilson said he would introduce Lend-Lease legislation that would allow President Trump to provide weapons to Ukraine.
— Today, I will introduce Lend-Lease legislation to give President Trump the flexible authority to send weapons of victory to our partners, including Ukraine, to deter the war criminal Putin, as Biden should have done. Force Russia to the negotiating table with American power! — Wilson wrote on social media X.
By the way, Russians, thanks to their propaganda, are sure that the Soviet Union won the Second World War without any help, and the entire civilized world, especially the West, literally owe their existence to Russia.
What is Lend-Lease
The term Lend-Lease appeared during the Second World War of 1939-1945. Literally, lend-lease means the following: Lend – to lend, Lease – to give on loan.
In America, this document was presented as the US Defense Assistance Act: on March 11, 1941, it was solemnly signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Lend-Lease was NOT created for the USSR
At the time the Lend-Lease law was signed, Great Britain needed military assistance in the fight against Hitler's regime, which was then effectively left alone against Nazism.
At the same time official Moscow (until June 22, 1941) was not Hitler's enemy counted: the Soviet army was no less active in capturing new territories in Eastern Europe, “liberating fraternal nations”.
Thus, while the US was coordinating military aid for Britain to resist Nazism, the USSR simply did not need this aid.
“Gratitude” Stalin
Officially, the Lend-Lease law was extended to the Soviet Union from October 1, 1941. “Leader of the Peoples” Stalin (for obvious propaganda purposes) announced this only on November 7, on the next anniversary of the October Revolution.
At that time, this date was considered the most important one for the USSR: despite the extremely critical situation at the front, a festive military parade was taking place in Moscow.
We now have the sympathy and support of all the peoples of Europe… We now have excellent armies and an excellent navy… We have no serious shortage of food, weapons, or uniforms… — said Stalin.
Even then, in Red Square, in addition to Soviet, allied military equipment was also visible.
It is known from historical sources that at first Stalin was interested in the whole world seeing that the USSR had received assistance from the USA and Britain. However, subsequently, by order of the “leader”, the columns of British tanks disappeared from the video footage.
It should be noted that subsequently Stalin nevertheless thanked the allies for Lend-Lease, however, of course, this happened during an unofficial meeting, namely — at the birthday party of the head of the British government Winston Churchill in 1943.
Then Stalin made a toast in honor of not only the birthday boy, but also the United States as a powerful military producer: the text of the speech itself was preserved in the journal of daily events during the Tehran conferences.
I want to tell you what the President and the United States did to win the war from the Soviet point of view. The most important things in this war are machines. The United States has proven that it can produce 8,000 to 10,000 airplanes monthly. The USSR can produce, at most, 3,000 airplanes monthly. England produces 3,000 to 3,500, mostly heavy bombers. So the United States is a country of machines. Without these machines, supplied under Lend-Lease, we would have lost this war.
What Churchill Said
In addition to the USA, Great Britain, whose Prime Minister during World War II was Sir Winston Churchill, also began providing military aid to the USSR almost immediately.
The world knows his numerous statements about the criminal nature of communism, but in difficult times Churchill openly spoke out in favor of helping the Soviet Union. Here is what he wrote in his memoirs:
From the very first moment I did everything I could to provide arms and various materials, and agreed to the shipment to Russia from the United States of a large part of what was intended for us (the British – Ed.). Rubber was scarce and precious, and the Russians demanded as much of it as possible. I even had to take from our meager supplies… The Soviet government considered that the Russians were doing us a great service if they were fighting in their own country for their own lives. And the longer they fought, the more indebted they considered us.
Lend-Lease in Numbers
The Lend-Lease scheme provided for the recipient country to fulfill a number of requirements.Materials destroyed or lost during combat operations were not subject to payment: in exchange for property that survived and was suitable for civilian purposes, it was necessary to pay in full or in part, under the terms of a long-term loan.
In addition, the lessee country was obliged to help the United States with all the necessary information and resources.
Several individual facts about Lend-Lease for the USSR:
- The legendary Katyusha (barrelless field rocket artillery systems) were mounted on American Studebaker trucks.
- The no less famous T-34 tank (so-called called the Victory tank) became a successful model thanks to the 85 mm gun, which was installed only after receiving special equipment from the Americans.
- The US supplied twice as many vehicles as the USSR produced during the entire war.
- At least half of the Soviet aircraft used in the war were made of American and Canadian aluminum.
The main figures of Lend-Lease in the USSR were made public by the public historical project Immortal Barrack. In addition to the crimes of the Second World War, the project's activists are also studying the repressions within the Soviet Union.
What Zhukov Said
Unlike modern Russian propagandists, who personally placed the Russian people on the highest pedestal in the victory over the German Nazi invaders, Soviet Marshal Zhukov thought somewhat differently.
Historians managed to find excerpts from his conversations in the post-war period (we are talking about the 1960s – Ed.), where the “marshal of victory” realistically assesses the contribution of the allies in the overthrow of Hitler and the end of World War II.
When speaking about our preparedness for war from the point of view of the economy, we cannot ignore such a factor as subsequent assistance from the allies. First of all, of course, from the Americans, because the British in this sense helped us minimally. When analyzing all aspects of the war, this cannot be discounted. We would have been in a difficult situation without American gunpowder, we could not have produced the amount of ammunition that we needed. Without American Studebakers, we would have nothing to haul our artillery on. But they generally provided our front-line transport to a significant extent. The production of special steels, necessary for a wide variety of war needs, was also associated with a number of American deliveries… We entered the war, still continuing to be an industrially backward country against Germany, — Zhukov said.
Direct speech is taken from an article by Russian opposition historian Boris Sokolov, co-author of the open collective letter of the Russian Congress of Intelligentsia “You will be damned!” To the Warmongers, which speaks of the historical responsibility of the Russian authorities for inciting a major war with Ukraine.
Boris Sokolov. The Role of Lend-Lease in Soviet Military Efforts 1941–1945
After Lend-Lease
When the war ended and the Lend-Lease program was closed, a new question arose: how and when to compensate for all US supplies? What is known from open sources:
- Some of the surviving military equipment was returned back.
- The equipment of the USSR's allies destroyed in battle was not compensated for need.
- There were cases of deliberate destruction (in the post-war period) of equipment, in particular naval equipment, which was subject to return to the Allies.
- The Soviet Union managed to cover an insignificant part during the war (the so-called reverse lend-lease).
Soon after the end of World War II, a new stage began, which we know as the “cold war”. The world in the political and ideological sense became bipolar for several decades, divided into capitalist and socialist countries.
Former Allies — The USA and the USSR — found themselves on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain, and this became the main reason for further conflicts, in particular, regarding the payment of Lend-Lease debts.
The total amount of the debt was repeatedly recalculated, but a common solution was never found.
In addition to the “majestic” historical legacy of the USSR, which collapsed in 1991, modern Russia has also taken over the Lend-Lease debt. Putin only solemnly announced in 2006 that Russia had successfully repaid the debt that had already been reduced by the United States.
