Critical Ukraine coverage at risk as Trump slashes Radio Free Europe funding

Yahoo

17-03-2025

The U.S. decision to cut off funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty came as a surprise for the outlet's newsroom, a source in the RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service told the Kyiv Independent.
'We understood that the U.S. president, to put it mildly, does not like us,' the source said on March 17. 'But there is bipartisan support, there is approved funding, and we had an (approved) budget at least until the end of this fiscal year. No one expected that they would cut off funding in the middle of the year like that.'
U.S. President Donald Trump eliminated seven federal agencies on March 14, including the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees RFE/RL and Voice of America (VoA). The decision terminated the Congress-authorized grant that funded RFE/RL, while the Voice of America's employees were put on administrative leave.
The move seeks to effectively end over seven decades of work of the U.S.-sponsored media outlets, launched to promote democracy and counter propaganda in authoritarian countries.
The decision was welcomed by Russian propagandists, who took to Russian state TV to praise it.
In Ukraine, the decision comes as a yet another blow to the country's media, which has already suffered greatly from the freeze of the USAID programs in January. The freeze left many Ukrainian independent media outlets, including local front-line newsrooms and investigative projects, without funding. Now, Ukraine's media landscape may risk to lose the robust local RFE/RL bureau.
For years, RFE/RL has been one of the most reliable sources for millions of Ukrainians. Around 14% of Ukrainians regularly tuned into the RFE/RL's coverage, according to a Gallup World Poll, conducted in July 2023. The same poll showed that '95% of the audience' trusted the Radio's coverage.
As of late 2024, the company employed a team of more than 100 people in Ukraine, said Maryana Drach, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service director.
For the Kyiv-based bureau, the halt would bring an end to several prominent projects, including investigations of corruption and Russian aggression, front-line coverage, and coverage of Ukraine's occupied territories.
The team in Kyiv continues work, reportedly hoping to restore or replace the lost funding.
'Everyone is in a waiting mode,' the source told the Kyiv Independent. 'Today we heard at one of the meetings with the management that they keep fighting.'
The RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service began operation on Aug. 16, 1954, in Munich under the initial name Radio Liberation, becoming one of the view free media outlets reachable by the citizens of the Soviet Union.During the Cold War, RFE/RL faced surveillance, provocations, and even terrorist attacks. In 1981, a bomb was planted at the headquarters of RFE/RL in Munich, injuring six people.
In modern Russia, Radio Free Europe has witnessed a similar fate.
In 2017, Russia labeled Voice of America and Radio Free Europe 'foreign agents.' Five years later, Moscow added RFE/RL to the list of 'undesirable' organizations. The registries have been widely used to target and silence groups and individuals who are critical of the government, including independent journalists, activists, and NGOs.
RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said that the cancelation of the organization's funding 'would be a massive gift to America's enemies.'
'The Iranian Ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years. Handing our adversaries a win would make them stronger and America weaker,' he said.
Read also: US foreign aid transformed Ukraine. Its suspension threatens decades of work
In Ukraine, the funding freeze risks ending several projects that were a long-time staple of local journalism, including coverage of occupied territories and investigations unveiling top-level corruption.
Since its launch in 2014, the Schemes investigative journalism program, a unit of the Radio's Kyiv bureau, has been investigating corruption and wrongdoing of Ukrainian elites. They have not shunned from investigating oligarchs and sitting presidents, having published investigations featuring President Volodymyr Zelensky and his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko.
After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, the Schemes project started investigating Russian war crimes and Russian officials, while also continuing to uncover corruption in Ukraine.
The other two trademark projects of RFE/RL in Ukraine — Crimea Realities and Donbas Realities — served as the key sources of information about the Russian-occupied territories.
Ukrainian journalist Artem Lysak worked as a reporter for Crimea Realities from 2016 to 2019. He used to visit the Russian-occupied peninsula undercover. He covered the persecution of Crimean Tatars and the illegal construction of the Crimean Bridge.
'The Crimea Realities project is as important now as it was from the beginning of (Russia's) invasion (of Crimea). Since we know that there is practically no freedom of speech in Crimea, just like in Russia,' Lysak told the Kyiv Independent.
'It remains one of the media outlets that constantly monitors the situation and gives at least some kind of true picture for the people in Crimea. There are no other projects like Crimea Realities in Ukraine, unfortunately,' he said.
During his reporting trips, Lysak faced interrogations and surveillance by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in Crimea. When his lawyer suspected that a criminal case might be fabricated against the journalist, Lysak decided to leave the peninsula.
For their work, RFE/RL's journalists have repeatedly faced persecution by the Kremlin.
Mykola Semena, a former observer of Crimea Realities, faced Russia's trumped-up charges for his journalism in Crimea in January 2016. He was able to leave the peninsula in 2020.
Another Ukrainian RFE/RL journalist, Vladyslav Yesypenko, was illegally detained in Crimea by Russia in 2021 and remains behind bars to this day.
Writer and former journalist Stanislav Aseyev, who worked for RFE/RL, said that he was tortured in Russian-occupied Donetsk for being affiliated with Radio Liberty.
'I once was electrocuted only for writing for Radio Liberty: I was told that it was 'a CIA structure and an enemy of Russia,' and for that reason alone I was already guilty,' Aseyev wrote.
The writer was abducted by Russian proxies in 2017 and jailed in the infamous Izolyatsia prisoner camp in Donetsk. He was released in December 2019 in a prisoner exchange.
'Now, the 'enemy of Russia' is being destroyed by America itself, and my torture seems in vain,' Aseyev said.
Days after the U.S. decision, Ukrainian journalists of RFE/RL continue their work, although the service's future remains unclear.
The source in RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service told the Kyiv Independent that there's funding through the end of March.
'The management hopes to get support from (U.S.) Congress, other organizations. There is hope that we will use this time effectively and will be able to somehow return back. There is an expectation that there will be some dissatisfaction in Congress, or maybe we can somehow, so to speak, cancel President (Trump's) decision,' the source said.
According to the source, support from the European Union is also considered as an alternative source of funding.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said EU foreign ministers discussed the functioning of RFE/RL at a meeting in Brussels on March 17. The bloc cannot automatically fund Radio Free Europe, she said, adding that the EU will look into potential options.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky did not rule out that the European Union can buy Radio Free Europe from the U.S.
Lysak said, citing his colleagues, that the Ukrainian Service has in the meantime parted ways with its freelance journalists.
The RFE/RL source confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that contracts with all freelancers have been terminated, adding that the decision, however, was made about a week ago. This move was made to save money amid the U.S. budget uncertainty.
'If a week ago we were wondering where to get money to pay back the freelancers, now the question arises whether the service will work at all,' they said.
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