Many Ukrainian aid groups stop work after Trump's halt on foreign assistance

Boston Globe

28-01-2025

Yuriy Boyechko, the founder and chief executive officer of Hope for Ukraine, which works with US-funded Ukrainian groups to supply firewood to front-line residents, said the impact of the halt in funding would be immediate. Deliveries will stop suddenly, he said, leaving people on their own in the middle of winter.
'They're going to feel the effect of this next week,' Boyechko said in an interview. 'This is just extremely harmful because you have millions of people in front-line areas near Kherson and Kharkiv who have been living without light for a long time. For them, firewood has been the only source of heat and a way to prepare food.'
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Ivona Kostyna, chair of Veteran Hub, an organization that supports veterans and their families, said that the organization had stopped two major programs: one that works with Ukrainian employers on employment policies for veterans, and another that provides space for veterans.
'It is on pause, but in fact for us, 90 days of pause means losing our team, our space, our clients' trust,' she said. The sudden stop in funding 'undermines the reliability of the partnership,' Kostyna said.
After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 set off, by some accounts, the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, European nations shouldered most of the burden of taking in refugees who fled Ukraine. The United States, for its part, helped to limit the flow of refugees by funding humanitarian programs that assisted internally displaced people.
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An Agency for International Development spokesperson in Washington confirmed Tuesday to The New York Times that all programs and grants without a waiver approved by the secretary of state had been paused for 90 days, while the audit is continuing. The State Department said in a statement that the aid freeze was justified by the need to 'refocus on American national interests' and that it would no longer 'blindly dole out money with no return for the American people.'
US Embassy officials in Ukraine requested exemptions to preserve aid for the country, according to Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, a Ukrainian lawmaker. The Financial Times first reported the request. In an interview, Yurchyshyn said discussions about granting waivers for Ukrainian assistance were continuing.
Continuing the aid, Yurchyshyn said, will counter 'the narrative of totalitarian countries that democracies are unstable partners, and you can never be sure democracies will help you.'
The Trump administration's threat to indefinitely cut all aid also has some groups fearing retribution if they speak out against the freeze.
Ukraine also has numerous media projects that survive on grants, allowing them to stay independent. Dozens of media organizations in Ukraine are now calling for support.
Bogdan Logvynenko, a founder at Ukrainer, which publishes articles about Ukraine in foreign languages, said he did not expect that financing from the United States would resume after the 90-day audit was completed. 'Our only chance is ourselves,' he said in a plea for public donations.
Ukrainian independent media currently receive more than 80 percent of their funding from the United States, Logvynenko said.
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