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, and providing basic services, often to some of the most vulnerable segments of society.
"Honestly, we still don’t fully understand the scope of the impact this decision will have on the civic sector and everyone affected," Olha Kucher, head of the services department at Veteran Hub, an NGO that supports Ukrainian soldiers, war veterans, and their families, told the Kyiv Independent on Jan 27.
"The civic sector plays a massive role in supporting veterans and their families, particularly through psychosocial services, as we do."
One of Trump's first actions upon entering the White House was to sign an executive order freezing foreign development assistance for 90 days to conduct a review and ensure it aligns with the new administration's policies.
The wording of the executive order was broad, making no distinction between humanitarian and military aid, and no mention of any exemptions.
The Pentagon clarified on Jan. 23 that relating to Ukraine, the directive "only applies to development programs, not military support." President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Jan. 25 that the U.S. aid had not stopped flowing to Ukraine.
But any relief that crucial U.S. weapons would still be sent to Ukraine was tempered by the prospect of a pause in humanitarian aid.
This was compounded a day later when U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio issued "stop-work orders" on nearly all existing foreign assistance grants. The orders were effective immediately.
"State just totally went nuclear on foreign assistance," one unnamed State Department official told Politico.
As a result, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was ordered to stop projects in Ukraine. Affected organizations were notified of the decision on the morning of Jan. 25.
Ukraine currently tops the recipient list of U.S. development assistance as it continues to face Russia’s war, official data shows.
Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, 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.
At a stroke, organizations in Ukraine have been left in dire financial straits. One of them is “Cukr,” an NGO and media outlet based in Sumy, a city in northeastern Ukraine located just 30 kilometers from the Russian border that has been heavily affected by the war.
"If we lose all of our U.S. funding, we won’t last 90 days without additional support."
"If we lose all of our U.S. funding, we won’t last 90 days without additional support," Dmytro Tishchenko, Cukr co-founder, told the Kyiv Independent.
As well as being a media channel, Cukr (which means “sugar” in Ukrainian, with a tweak) organizes concerts and festivals, and also provides educational workshops on business and mental health, badly-needed resources for those living in a region that is one of the hardest hit by daily Russian missile, glide bomb, and drone attacks.
Tishchenko said 30% of the organization's funding was currently frozen and all planned events tied to that money had been canceled.
"Even if we try to use alternative resources for these projects, we’ll need to rethink how to implement them," he said.
Valerii Garmash, head of "Make Sense," an NGO dedicated to developing independent journalism in Ukraine, told the Kyiv Independent that the USAID freeze, even if lifted after 90 days, threatens the survival of her organization and others like it.
"A large number of organizations will simply cease to exist, they don’t know how they are supposed to survive." she said, adding: "Great organizations, valuable organizations, important organizations. But they really could, and theoretically might, just stop existing."
Garmash said the USAID freeze will have an "enormous impact" on the work of Makes Sense, potentially threatening a hub it operates in Sloviansk, a city in embattled Donetsk Oblast, that supports journalists heading to report from the front lines.
"It would mean we simply wouldn’t be able to support them, provide them with bulletproof vests, helmets, medical kits, give them a place to work, charge their equipment, or even just have coffee in a warm space," she said.
"It would mean we simply wouldn’t be able to support them, provide them with bulletproof vests, helmets, medical kits, give them a place to work, charge their equipment, or even just have coffee in a warm space."
As well as the precarious financial situation now facing the NGOs, individuals working from them have lost their jobs, at least temporarily.
Chris York
The head of a regional office for a State Department-funded organization in Ukraine spoke with the Kyiv Independent on condition of anonymity due to the fear of retaliation for speaking out.
He said that the organization has projects funded by USAID that involve Ukrainian contractors. Due to the freeze, they will lose income from these projects.
"I explained the situation to them, and, you know, they're part-time contractors, this might not be their only livelihood, but for some people, it will be," he said.
"Three months can be a very long time, and if they can't pay their rent, or something like that, that's the situation that these people can be in," he added.
Hopes had been raised that Ukraine could be made exempt from the USAID freeze on Jan. 25, when the Financial Times (FT) reported that senior diplomats in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs requested a full waiver for operations in Ukraine, citing national security concerns.
This had gone unheeded a day later when a U.S. State Department press release said Rubio had "paused all U.S. foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and USAID for review."
But an American working for a State Department-funded organization in Ukraine told the Kyiv Independent on condition of anonymity that the waiver could still be being processed.
"It's unlikely that they would have received an answer by now. I mean, it's only Monday," they said, adding "I don't think any waivers would have been processed in time. It's possible that a waiver for Ukraine could still happen."
The Kyiv Independent contacted USAID about the status of the waiver request but had not received a reply at the time of publication.
In any case, until either the 90 days are up and USAID assistance resumes or the waiver request is approved, some of the most vulnerable people in Ukraine will be left without crucial support.
Kucher, head of the services department at Veterans Hub, says that as well as providing in-person counseling and support to veterans, the organization’s 24-hour support hotline handles 1,300 calls a month.
"For veterans and their families, knowing that there’s someone they can rely on at any time is critical," she said.
"Any change, especially in uncertain times like these, is challenging for everyone. It’s unpredictable and unsettling."
Kateryna Hodunova
