Pulling: Washington orders USAID to stop projects and funding in Ukraine. – Kyiv independent

The US Agency for International Development (USAID), one of the largest official aid agencies in the world, has been spoken to stop projects in Ukraine after a 90-day freezing of foreign assistance imposed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ukrainian media suspected, referring to the reference of sources at the agency, on January 26th.

The takeover directive took an immediate effect on January 24, leaving many Limbo agencies as they were told to stop working on existing projects while the US Audit Foreign Aid programs.

Initially, the senior diplomats at the State Department’s European and Eurasian cases requested a complete refusal to exclude USAID operations in Ukraine, citing fears of national security.

However, an anonymous USAID employee told Suspilne that the agency was still ordered to stop its projects and spend it. Employees do not have clear instructions on how to perform this or if there are some exceptions, the source said.

USAID has been involved in wartime in Ukraine and has provided over $ 2.6 billion in humanitarian aid, $ 5 billion in development assistance and $ 30 billion for direct budget support since the start of Russia’s full -scale invasion.

Already some of the projects that USAID funds are stopping work. Yvonne Kostina, the co -founder of the veteran center, which offers services to veterans, said the organization should complete the operations in Vinity because of the directive.

“For our clients, this includes professional legal and psychological consultations, support to find opportunities for work, education and grant, personal support at every stage of their journey online and personally in Vinnia,” Costana wrote on Facebook.

Freeze has left hundreds of foreign care contracts estimated at over $ 70 billion in the fiscal year 2022 in Limbo, as the review process develops over the next 85 days, according to the Financial Times. Ukrainian staff and NGO have warned that the break can threaten critical initiatives, including support for schools, hospitals and infrastructure development.

President Volodimir Zelenski said military assistance to Ukraine was not affected during a press conference with Moldov -President Maya Sanu on January 25th.

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General inspectors provide supervision of federal agencies, investigating cases of possible fraud, waste and abuse of power. The Guardians of the Ministry of Defense have played a role in the US military assistance tracking of Ukraine throughout Russia’s full -scale invasion.