The budget request from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for Ukraine for the fiscal year 2025 (FY, from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025) amounts to $481.6 million, according to materials on the agency's websites, whose foreign aid was frozen by the new American administration for 90 days.
"We must ensure a strategic failure of Putin's war against Ukraine by supporting the Ukrainian government and people," the document states as justification for the funding allocation.
It is noted, in particular, that $321 million is intended for accounts fully or partially managed by USAID, "to help meet the increased needs in economy, development, and security, including strengthening energy infrastructure after systematic attacks by Russia, improving cybersecurity, developing the agricultural sector for export creation, as well as supporting civil society, including activists, journalists, and independent media."
According to the document, the requested funds for 2025 exceed the budget for FY 2023, which was $411.1 million; however, that year, additional budgets for Ukraine totaling another $18.94 billion were allocated.
As indicated on the Ukrainian page of USAID, since the start of the war on February 24, 2022, the agency has allocated $2.6 billion for humanitarian assistance, $5 billion for development aid, and $30 billion in direct budget support.
The budget request for Ukraine for FY 2025 includes, in particular, $71 million for healthcare support, including $53 million and $12 million for combating HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, $27.1 million for climate goals, $22.6 million for supporting the agricultural sector, $91.1 million for democracy, human rights, and governance support, $13 million for digital technologies, $21.2 million for gender policy, and $2.4 million for higher education.
Already this weekend, Ukrainian recipients of USAID funding began reporting its cessation.
In particular, the Veteran Hub announced the forced suspension of its branch in Vinnytsia and the Support Line for an indefinite period, which had been operating continuously since 2020 and March 2022, respectively.
"Since 2018, we have refrained from public fundraising because we believe that donations are primarily needed for the military. Today we are forced to publicly seek support for the first time," the organization wrote.
The suspension of USAID programs has also affected Member of Parliament Nina Yuzhanina, who was supposed to go on a study visit this Sunday as part of a delegation organized under the USAID RADA Next Generation (RANG) program in cooperation with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WF). "But late yesterday, we were informed that the visit was canceled," she wrote on Facebook.
"Right now, during the extremely difficult trials that Ukraine is undergoing, halting humanitarian projects is tantamount to disaster. A sharp cessation of funding poses enormous risks for Ukraine," wrote Olesya Olenitskaya, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Eastern Europe Foundation, on Facebook.
According to her, such a decision will lead, among other things, to the cessation of building shelters for safe education during missile attacks from the Russian Federation, the termination of financial support for schools and hospitals in frontline regions of the country, and the disruption of established projects in the humanitarian sector.
The Financial Times reported over the weekend that officials from the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the State Department urged new Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make an exception for Ukraine in the freeze of American aid to foreign states, similar to the exception made for Israel and Egypt (budget requests for them for FY 2025 amount to $3.3 billion and $1.433 billion, respectively).
"For now, we do not know whether this request will be approved - fully or partially - but positive signals are coming from Washington," FT quoted an email sent to USAID staff in Ukraine on Saturday, January 25.
USAID's budget request for Ukraine for FY 2025 and its distribution by areas
| $ | Total | AEECA | FMF | GHP-STATE | GHP-USAID | IMET | INCLE | NADR |
| Ukraine | 481,6 | 250,0 | 94,6 | 53,0 | 18,0 | 4,0 | 50,0 | 12,0 |
Data: USAID
Source: https://www.usaid.gov/cj
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