U.S. President Donald Trump's freeze on foreign funding has begun to affect international efforts to hold Russia accountable for war crimes in Ukraine, Reuters reported on Feb. 10, citing eight unnamed sources and an obtained Ukrainian document.
More than 140,000 Russian war crimes have been recorded by Kyiv since the beginning of Moscow's full-scale invasion, according to Ukrainian prosecutors. War crimes include acts such as deliberate attacks on civilians, attacks on cultural sites or medical institutions, torture, and deportations.
Six U.S.-funded projects at Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office, worth $89 million, are at stake, the document seen by Reuters showed.
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.
Previously, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Olha Stefanishyna said that several commissions involved in judicial selections have either halted work or faced operational issues due to the suspension of the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) operations.
Two of the projects were funded by USAID, three by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, and one by the U.S. State Department, according to the document.
A total $47 million of the funding was directly allocated to prosecute Russian war crimes, Reuters reported.
Additionally, nearly 40 experts at Georgetown University's International Criminal Justice Initiative, the lead implementing organization of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group for Ukraine (ACA), stopped working, two sources told the news agency.
ACA is an international initiative funded by the U.S., U.K. and EU that have provided expertise and oversight to Ukrainian authorities. It has sent more than 150 experienced experts to help Ukrainian prosecutors.
USAID has funded a wide range of initiatives in Ukraine, from energy security to civil society development. U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day freeze on all foreign assistance upon taking office, effectively halting USAID-funded programs worldwide.
Trump's administration is reportedly planning to eliminate most positions at USAID, The New York Times reported on Feb. 6, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Billionaire Elon Musk, now head of the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), has called USAID "a criminal organization" and claimed on Feb. 3 that Trump agreed to shut it down.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
