Ukraine reels from ‘worst-case scenario' suspension of US foreign aid

The Guardian

29-01-2025

Ukraine is reeling from the shock decision by the Trump administration to pause all US foreign aid programmes immediately, as a variety of projects in the country – from military veteran rehabilitation programmes to independent media and anti-corruption initiatives – have effectively been stopped overnight.
It was seen as inevitable that the incoming administration would overhaul USAid, the US development agency, but there was an expectation that spending on Ukraine, or at least some of the most critical programmes, would be subject to a waiver – or there would at least be a winding-down period.
Instead, a 'stop-work' order issued last Friday has left hundreds of projects without funding, initially for a 90-day review period. Attempts by the Kyiv USAid office to save funding for some of the most important programmes have reportedly been rebuffed in Washington.
'They requested a waiver for some of the things they considered critical but didn't get it,' said a source familiar with discussions over the future of USAid in Ukraine. 'It's clear that the new administration wants to destroy what was there before and build something completely new.'
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said his government would prioritise the most important USAid-funded programmes and try to cover them with alternative funding solutions.
'There are programmes like those for prosthetic limbs, or those on special rehabilitation, which obviously can't just be ended abruptly. There will be a prioritisation,' said Zelenskyy's adviser Mykhailo Podolyak in an interview on Wednesday.
Military aid and direct budgetary assistance to Ukraine have not so far been affected, but USAid had sent more than $7.6bn (£6.11bn) in humanitarian and development aid since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022 and backed a remarkable range of projects across many sectors.
'This was the worst-case scenario,' said George Chewning, the executive director of US-Ukraine Veterans Bridge, an organisation devoted to fostering links between military veterans in the two countries. He said several partner organisations in Ukraine had suddenly found out their projects would no longer be continued. One, Veteran Hub, said it was closing a telephone hotline that had provided support and counselling to traumatised veterans.
'A lot of people thought there might be a thorough review and were prepared to justify their work and their projects but there certainly wasn't an expectation that the funding would be halted,' said Chewning.
For veterans' organisations, the cuts could not have come at a worse time, said Chewning, as Donald Trump's desire to negotiate an end to the war could result in hundreds of thousands of newly demobilised veterans needing to re-integrate into society. 'All our partners are now scrambling for additional funding, which was not easy to come by in the first place,' he said.
USAid also handled a large number of regional humanitarian aid projects, many of which were left pondering how to fill the newly created gaps, and without any idea what would remain after the three-month review period.
'It just impacts our morale … Do we wait for their continuation? Do we redirect these projects to other agencies? We don't really know what to do,' said Vitalii Lukov, the deputy mayor of the southern city of Mykolaiv, which has been reliant on international aid since being severely damaged in the early months of the war.
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'USAid was the quickest to provide us with diesel generators and the energy efficiency projects are almost finished. But what will we do if Russia attacks our energy again tomorrow?' Lukov asked.
The US development agency was also a supporter of many of Ukraine's independent media outlets.
Bohdan Lohvynenko, the founder of the Ukraïner online news portal, said more than 80% of the site's funding came from the US, and the outlet was now in serious trouble. 'There is no viable advertising market for war reporting, leaving us with community support or a paywall model,' he said. However, raising money in this way during wartime was very difficult, he said, with most citizens preferring to use their money to support the military.
'Some [media outlets] will survive but many will not. Already a lot of people are losing their jobs,' said Katerina Sergatskova, a co-founder of the 2042 foundation, which provides support and training to Ukrainian journalists. 'If places have a cash reserve they may be able to survive for the next three months,' she said, until it became clear which USAid projects would be continued.
The stop-work order meant that projects were abruptly ended with almost no warning. Oleh Velhan was one of thousands of Ukrainians to receive an email earlier this week informing him that his service agreement would be suspended, starting from Wednesday and 'until further notice'. Velhan worked for a company that provided services to an organisation working in the healthcare sector.
The suspension was in order to 'assess the effectiveness of programs and their compliance with United States foreign policy', said the email. A few minutes after receiving the message, Velhan found he was locked out of his work email account. 'I felt frustrated and angry. All the projects I had been working on are gone. I've been notified that the contract might be renewed … but the uncertainty is killing me,' he said.