Alarm in Ukraine as US Aid Freeze Halts Humanitarian Projects

Numerous Ukraine-based humanitarian projects have had their financing suspended due to the US freeze on foreign aid, several sources told AFP on Monday, prompting alarm in the war-battered country.

Almost three years after Russia’s invasion, Ukraine has become extremely dependent on foreign aid for humanitarian work, with the United States providing billions of dollars of that help.

Organizations that support veterans, local media and healthcare are among those to have had their funding curtailed by Washington, with many small local press outlets and aid groups announcing on social networks that they would have to close as a result.

“Most of the projects have received an order to stop,” a source at the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) mission in Ukraine told AFP.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday ordered a halt to virtually all US foreign aid except for funding to Israel and Egypt, according to an internal memo.

It came after US President Donald Trump signed an order last Monday temporarily suspending foreign assistance programmes for 90 days pending reviews of their funding.

A number of Ukrainian and international NGOs wrote on social media that they were affected by the freeze.

Olga Kucher of Veteran Hub told AFP the Ukrainian NGO on Monday had to pause the work of its branch in the central city of Vinnytsia.

The organization offers legal consultations and psychological support to veterans and their loved ones.

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“We do not know how long this will last,” she said, adding that the group had launched an appeal asking Ukrainian companies to help fund its operations.

Maria Vorotylo, a soldier’s wife who had been receiving help from Veteran Hub, wrote on Facebook that its closure was “a very severe blow”.

She called Veteran Hub “one of the threads that keep many people in good mental health now,” adding that she had received help with understanding the mental toll that fighting took on her husband.

A humanitarian worker at an American NGO in Ukraine that is partly funded by USAID said that a project to assist Ukrainian aid groups that was about to launch has now been “put on hold”.

“We don’t know if it will be completely cancelled or reduced,” they said on condition of anonymity.

The worker explained that his organization was supposed to provide support totalling several million dollars to half a dozen Ukrainian NGOs, some of which are now at of risk closing.

Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, USAID has provided Ukraine with $2.6 billion in humanitarian aid, $5 billion in development assistance and more than $30 billion in direct budget support, according to its website.