The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Ukraine has suspended the implementation of projects due to the U.S. State Department’s order to conduct a 90-day audit of assistance programs to other countries.
This was reported to Suspilne by an employee of the USAID office in Kyiv. There are currently no details on the implementation of the directive or possible exceptions.
USAID in Ukraine supports a number of projects, including school reconstruction, power system repairs, and healthcare services. Ukrainian organizations are already receiving letters about the suspension of activities funded by USAID or dependent on American funds.
For example, Ivona Kostyna, co-founder of Veteran Hub, said that because of this, they were forced to close the Veterans Support Line and the Hub in Vinnytsia, calling on businesses to support the project.
On January 25, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy assured that the State Department’s directive does not apply to military aid to Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Financial Times writes that State Department diplomats from the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs have called on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to exclude Ukraine from the directive.