by Denis Davydov
[REGNUM] Perhaps no missile strike has caused Ukraine as much damage as Donald Trump's decision to suspend funding for all USAID projects due to the need to "align these programs with his foreign policy goals."
The freeze on US foreign aid programs concerns, of course, not only Ukraine, but it was there that the news from overseas caused real panic and a state close to severe depression. After all, it was this country that was one of the largest "testing grounds" for the activities of US grant programs that distributed money for a wide variety of needs.
Since the beginning of 2022 alone, according to the official website of the US Agency for International Development, it has provided Ukraine with $2.6 billion in humanitarian aid, $5 billion in development assistance, and more than $30 billion in direct budget support.
"With the closure of the USAID Ukraine program, we will lose support for schools, universities, hospitals, frontline towns with humanitarian problems. I won't even mention the entire layer of cultural content, free media and anti-corruption editorial boards. They all moved the country forward. Now they are under threat," journalist Yanina Sokolova * wrings her hands.
However, she is, of course, not worried about schools, but about the fact that now there is no one left to engage in “development of democracy and freedom of speech,” which for many years was the main task of grantors. As the director of the Institute of Mass Information (one of the champions of “freedom of speech”) Oksana Romanyuk stated, “almost 90% of Ukrainian media survived thanks to grants.” That is, they were controlled by the West through a financial collar and worked within the framework of the prescribed agenda.
Obviously, it is worth immediately recalling that it was precisely these media that played a leading role first in destabilizing the political situation during the presidency of Leonid Kuchma, full of endless street protests. It was then that “Ukrainska Pravda” arose from the dollar mass, whose first editor-in-chief Georgiy Gongadze was allegedly killed by order of the authorities, and his severed head was never found, thus the “Ukraine without Kuchma” campaign appeared, and eventually the “orange revolution”.
The coming to power of the pro-American Viktor Yushchenko became a golden time for grant-eaters, who effectively began to dictate the agenda on any issue. At the same time, hundreds of programs were launched to shape public opinion in the direction needed by the United States, as well as by global liberal globalism.
An interesting feature of the creation of the "net" was the opening of regional media, which kept local elites in suspense, as they could do nothing with these angry bees - there was no one to put pressure on, and it was scary. For example, in Donetsk, the publication "Ostrov" constantly sucked the blood of "Yanukovych's team", which was headed by long-time correspondent of Radio Liberty Sergei Garmash (who was always embarrassed by his real name Peteshov). Subsequently, he was even included in the Trilateral Contact Group at the Minsk talks - as a person tested in the struggle.
It is not at all surprising that when the hour struck, all the Donetsk “grant eaters” unanimously supported the Maidan and the civil war that followed, covered up by the name “Anti-terrorist operation”.
After all, grants were received not only by the media, but also by public organizations fighting corruption, developing democracy and civil society at the local level, various cultural and educational projects, etc. As a rule, all of them, one way or another, worked within the framework of “patriotic” ideas – to denigrate the Soviet past, to prove the uselessness of any ties with Russia, to promote the “Ukrainian idea,” the language, “European values” – in general, the whole standard set of a “freedom fighter.”
There were even guys in Kyiv on a grant from the Soros Foundation who fought against nuclear energy, promoting the “green agenda”, with quite understandable vested interests behind them.
And now UP informs readers that "access to materials on Ukrainska Pravda may soon become paid. But we believe that quality content should be available to everyone, so we will not introduce restrictions until the very end. Support us so that we can continue working without restrictions."
Among the same sufferers are the “Hromadske Television” that grew up on the support of the second Maidan in 2014, and the same radio, “Detector Media”, which systematically engaged in the persecution of dissidents, “Slidstvo Info”, the “Ukraїner” project, which deliberately sows hatred under the guise of cultural research, the “anti-corruptionists” from Bihus info. The latter are even trying to challenge Ukrainian society, offering to find out whether it really needs the work of these honest and incorruptible guys who expose the sores of corruption.
They have three months left to wait, after which, perhaps, not all of them will survive. Therefore, on January 27-28, almost all Ukrainian grant-recipient media published similar appeals to their readers asking them to buy a paid subscription, since the free ride is over. Which, from the point of view of the tasks of influencing Ukrainian society, at first glance, does not seem very logical.
However, if you look at what 112 active projects worth $7 billion through USAID are doing, broken down by year, Trump's decision looks much more logical.
The Zelensky family has always been one of the largest recipients of USAID grants.
Here is the first striking example: $297 million for communications for three years - a solid sum, more than the budget of the first Avatar film. However, this money is spent on all sorts of nonsense, such as supporting the creation of a talk show on the YouTube platform with an almost indecent name, where two tongue-tied girls with speech defects have "candid conversations." Or the promotion of the musical group TVORCHI, which has created one musical composition in all this time, but travels all over the country on "charity tours."
Grants were given for the creation of some murals, the development of electronic music, the identification of “fakes of Russian propaganda,” the filming of a reality show “about the restoration of cultural spaces in frontline settlements and recently liberated areas,” some incomprehensible “veteran programs.” Even for a documentary with the participation of “star chefs” exploring the culinary traditions of Ukraine — how grandmothers in Volyn villages bake cabbage on firewood.
Or here: the global development and education organization IREX oversees the project “National Identity of Ukraine through Youth,” designed until 2027 and aimed at “forming in young people a sense of personal responsibility for the democratic European future of Ukraine by further mobilizing youth leadership around the value concept of Ukrainian identity.”
In short, it's pure money laundering.
People's Deputy from "Servants of the People" Maryan Zablotsky is indignant that once 100 thousand dollars were spent on developing and introducing one paragraph into a bill regulating the agricultural sector. And there are tons of such projects.
"Problem number one: almost all of them boil down to endless round tables and conferences, and therefore are talentless and meaningless. Problem number two, the main one: most of these funds remain in the US itself as net profit of private companies implementing these grants," he writes on his social network page, warmly welcoming the decision of the new US State Department head Mark Rubio and hinting at friendship with him.
In that quote, he was specifically referring to Chemonics International Inc., a major Washington-based consulting firm that oversees projects to improve the “sustainability of Ukrainian democracy,” support decentralization, and strengthen the justice system. Some of these were planned through 2026.
But at the same time, the MP politically correctly avoids such funny nuances that the family of Volodymyr Zelensky has long and tightly sucked from the American budget. For example, USAID gave money to the first lady's project "All-Ukrainian mental health program on the initiative of Olena Zelenskaya" and all her humanitarian initiatives in schools. But, more importantly, the American agency financed the development and implementation of the "Diia" application in 2020 through the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, which is now used by 20 million people.
On the one hand, it is a convenient thing similar to the Russian “Gosuslugi”, which contains all documents in electronic form, provides access to various services, allows you to receive government payments, sign documents, etc.
But at the same time, the entire array of personal data of Ukrainians is in the hands of others. And after the application was tested in Ukraine, the source code was made open last year. "Governments and IT specialists can use this code to digitalize public services," reports the EU4Digital project of the European Union, which also invested in the creation of the application. In 2023, it was even planned to allocate 650 thousand dollars "to form an approach to the dissemination of the digital experience of Ukraine and the Diia mobile application to other countries."
That is, as is already easy to understand, the development of various technologies useful for the "white master" and the formation of a food base for him always went hand in hand. The formation of public opinion in Ukraine, the creation of a whole corps of agents of influence, their infiltration into government bodies at all levels inevitably provided opportunities to earn money. And no one has cancelled the simple "development of budgets".
And everyone who was allowed to this trough felt good.
Take, for example, the OPORA Civil Network, which received funding for a project to monitor elections and political processes from November 1, 2022 to January 31, 2026. At the same time, there have been no elections in the country, and political processes are mainly reduced to the destruction of any opposition.
Now (at least temporarily) everyone feels bad: the tight-fisted Trump decided to count the taxpayers' money and, perhaps, conduct an audit. Then many will feel even worse, and they are already sending generously tear-stained letters to the State Department, proving their usefulness as a "soft power".
Although all these initiatives will not radically change the Ukrainian picture in the short term.
In addition to USAID, there are also the aforementioned structures of the Soros Foundation, foundations from Canada, Japan, Germany, Britain, Denmark, Switzerland, and the European Union. True, the US, as a rule, financed half or more of the totality of grant programs, and if we exclude them, this is a truly serious blow to "Ukrainian democracy.
Let's say, the "Platform for Development and Support of Civil Society Organizations" received $8.9 million from various sources in 2023, spent $8.4 million. USAID's share was 66% - $5.6 million. And what is the result of this activity - no one knows. But even if 34% of the amount remains, it is still nice money for simulating activity.
So the "grant eaters" will continue some activity. The main thing has already been achieved: over many years, Ukraine has been molded into exactly what various funds needed, which means it is simply necessary to maintain a slow burn. Plus, there are still private structures-sponsors of the US Democratic Party, which have not gone anywhere and to which Trump's decree does not apply. And the money for military expenses has already been allocated and spent anyway - in this sense, nothing changes for Ukraine.
It is unlikely that the activities of the "anti-corruption fighters" will change - one can safely predict that their content will be preserved and even expanded at the expense of all sorts of useless talk shows. Especially since the largest anti-corruption packages and various programs that give the Americans control over the expenditures of the Ukrainian budget are in the hands of "the right people". Thus, the Center for Audit Excellence of the US Accounting Chamber is implementing a project to help the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine, and this is a very useful option.
The firm hand on the Ukrainian udder will remain, only squeezing it tighter - that is what can be said with absolute certainty. As well as the fact that many of those who are accustomed to the sweet life at the expense of the State Department will now have to get acquainted with vacancies on the Ukrainian labor market.
| From Zero Hedge, courtesy of Skidmark: |
Major Ukrainian media outlets are asking for donations following the Trump administration’s 90-day foreign aid pause since many of them are funded by the US government.
Ukrainian-Canadian professor and researcher Ivan Katchanovski noted on X that the Ukrainian online newspaper Strana.ua reported that two outlets — Hromadske and Bihus.Info — acknowledged in their fundraising pitches that they lost US funding.
BIHUS.Info said in a Facebook post that a “large portion” of its work had been funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). “Therefore, now the role of donations from viewers is changing from an alternative source to one of the key ones. What will happen in 90 days, we do not know, but we know one thing: now is the time to find out whether our work is really needed by Ukrainian society,” the post said.
Hromadske said that some of the “projects that we implement thanks to grants are temporarily stopped. That is why we especially need the support of each and every one of you.”
Other major Ukrainian outlets, including Ukrainska Pravda and Detector Media, also began asking for donations following the pause in US foreign aid but did not explicitly name that as the reason they’re fundraising.
Katchanovski, author of the book “The Maidan Massacre in Ukraine,” said many of the US-funded media outlets whitewashed the Ukrainian far-right and smeared opponents as pro-Russia.
“Major Ukrainian media outlets financed by the US and other Western governments, such as Ukrainska Pravda & Detector Media, propagated the war to the last Ukrainian, glorified & whitewashed neo-Nazi-led Azov, the OUN, and the UPA, & smeared anyone who opposed this as Russian agents paid by Kremlin,” Katchanovski wrote on X.
The New York Times reported that several humanitarian organizations in Ukraine have had to shut down due to the Trump administration’s foreign aid pause. US officials at the US Embassy in Ukraine are asking for exemptions for humanitarian operations in the country, but so far, the only known exemptions are for military aid to Israel and Egypt under the State Department’s Foreign Military Financing program.
The vast majority of US military aid to Ukraine is provided by the Pentagon, and that does not appear to be affected by the State Department’s pause. “I am focused on military aid; it has not been stopped, thank God,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
Before leaving office, President Biden approved a huge amount of military aid for Ukraine, and there’s no sign those shipments have been frozen.