The U.S. has officially canceled 83% of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) programs, with the roughly 1,000 remaining contracts to be administered by the State Department, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on March 10.
Georgia is in a grim state. Once vibrant, welcoming, and hopeful, it has become a country where peaceful protesters are beaten and journalists are branded as traitors. Over the past year, the ruling Georgian Dream party has stifled civil society and media with its foreign agent law, extended its reign
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on March 5 the Trump administration must adhere to a lower court ruling that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) restart payments worth nearly $2 billion for the remaining USAID projects.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was instructed by the State Department to terminate initiatives set to help restore Ukraine's energy grid, NBC News reported citing two USAID officials working on the matter.
The Trump administration said on Feb. 26 that it is terminating over 90% of the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) foreign aid contracts, cutting $60 billion in foreign assistance, the U.S. media reported.
These exemptions would extend beyond the U.S. waiver for "life-saving" programs and would allow Ukraine to receive funding for demining, narcotics control, and civil society projects.
Judge Amir Ali issued the order in response to a lawsuit filed by the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council.
"We agreed that we are not automatically filling the void with European money because, first, we don't have those funds," Kallas said.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the international community has sent nearly $11 billion in humanitarian aid, with billions more from individuals, charities, and Ukrainians. The UN recently announced a new $3.3 billion appeal for 2025. Yet, despite this support, key players in humanitarian aid — state donors,
The European Commission will update the provision of foreign aid and make it more "targeted for partners," Bloomberg reported, citing the draft document.
Funding for at least five of these projects has already been frozen, five sources told Reuters, citing payment disruptions. Those affected were working on issues ranging from preserving evidence from the battlefield to anti-corruption initiatives and reforming Ukraine's prosecution system.
The European Union's lending arm, the European Investment Bank (EIB), has signed agreements to mobilize close to 1 billion euros ($1.03 billion) in investments into Ukraine’s public and private sectors as the U.S. moves to cut funding to development projects in the country. U.S. President Donald
The "very limited" restraining order covers the the pending employee suspensions as well as "the accelerated removal of people from their countries," Judge Carl Nichols said following a hearing in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Writing on Truth Social on Feb. 7, U.S. President Donald Trump accused the agency of widespread corruption and fraud, declaring, "CLOSE IT DOWN!"
Urgent funding has already been identified for recovery efforts, energy resilience, and cyber defense projects, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Olha Stefanishyna said.
The cuts will reduce the agency from 10,000 staff around the world to just 290, three sources with knowledge of the layoffs said.
A GoFundMe campaign launched on Jan. 30 quickly surpassed its initial goal of 40,000 pounds ($50,000) within days. Now closed, the campaign’s funds are being distributed to the impacted media outlets.
Elon Musk reposted a fabricated story on X suggesting that USAID financed Western celebrities' visits to Ukraine.
"I continue to support foreign aid. But foreign aid is not charity. It exists for the purpose of advancing the national interest of the United States," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
The cuts include suspending U.S. assistance in war crimes investigations and halting support for international experts assisting in the process, Democratic Congressman Eugene Vindman said.
More than a decade after Ukraine’s pro-democracy EuroMaidan Revolution, the false — but persistent — claim that the movement was a Western-backed "coup" refuses to die. Elon Musk on Feb. 2 boosted to his more than 215 million followers a post on X which parroted Russian disinformation, claiming without evidence that
Members of Congress gathered outside USAID headquarters in Washington, condemning what they called an "illegal maneuver" by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who U.S. President Donald Trump has tasked with reducing the size of the federal government.
Trump has named Rubio acting USAID administrator "as an interim step toward gaining control and better understanding over the agency's activity," the state department said in a press release.
"With regards to the USAID stuff, I went over it with (the president) in detail, and he agreed that we should shut it down," Elon Musk said during a conversation on X Spaces.
The removals are part of a broader effort by Trump’s team to strip USAID of its independence. Nearly 100 senior career staff members have been placed on leave as discussions continue about shifting the agency under State Department control.
Editor’s Note: The Kyiv Independent isn’t a recipient of U.S. foreign aid, and its funding wasn’t affected by the aid freeze. With the stroke of a pen, U.S. President Donald Trump last week put a freeze on projects that have helped Ukraine become freer and
"We couldn’t just stand by and watch our colleagues and partners lose their teams and suspend their operations while independent journalism remains one of the most crucial jobs in Ukraine today, especially near the front lines," said Daryna Shevchenko, CEO of the Kyiv Independent.
The pause in U.S. funding could last for three to six months, according to the Ukrainian parliament's humanitarian and information policy committee.
Those programs not covered by the waiver include "abortions, family planning conferences… transgender surgeries, or other non-life saving assistance."
Editor's Note: After this op-ed was published, the Kyiv Independent launched a fundraiser to save three Ukrainian newsrooms that suffered from the aid freeze. It probably made sense on paper. In his first week in office, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a 90–day freeze on U.S. foreign
U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to freeze foreign development assistance for 90 days has thrown Ukrainian organizations into turmoil, in some cases threatening their very existence and leaving the people they support in limbo. These non-profit organizations provide a huge range of humanitarian services, including counseling, organizing cultural events,
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), one of the largest official aid agencies in the world, has been told to stop projects in Ukraine following a 90-day foreign aid freeze imposed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ukrainian media Suspilne reported, citing sources in the agency.
(Updated: )
