Washington DC - French President Emmanuel Macron fact checked his US counterpart, Donald Trump, who said that Europe was only "loaning" money to Ukraine.

The two leaders met at the White House Monday amid a growing rift between the Trump administration and Ukraine, which entered its third year of fighting off a Russian invasion.

During a joint press conference, Trump claimed that Europe was "loaning" money to Ukraine and would be expecting Kyiv to pay it back once the war ends.

Macron quickly reached over, squeezed the Republican's elbow, and stopped him mid-sentence to interject: "No, in fact, to be frank, we paid."

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"We paid 60% of the total [aid to Ukraine] before, and it was through – like the US – loans, guarantees, grants," he explained with a wry smile on his face. "We provided real money, to be clear."

Trump seemed irritated by the correction, mouthing the work "OK" and grimacing.

In addition, Macron said that while Ukraine did not have to pay European countries back, they could potentially recuperate some of the costs via frozen Russian assets within the EU.

"We have $230 billion frozen assets in Europe – Russian assets," he claimed. "But this is not as a collateral of the loan because these are not our belongings."

"If at the end of the day in the negotiations we will have with Russia, they are ready to give it to us, super – it will be a loan at the end of the day and Russia will have paid for it."