Rubio amends foreign aid freeze, some humanitarian programmes to receive funding - Washington Post
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has made some exceptions to the foreign aid freeze. A number of humanitarian programmes will receive funding, at least temporarily.
The Washington Post reports this with reference to the relevant order of the US department.
"Implementers of existing lifesaving humanitarian assistance programs should continue or resume work if they have stopped," the document says.
According to Rubio, this includes "core lifesaving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance."
It is also stressed that "this resumption is temporary in nature, and no new contracts shall be entered into."
However, there will be no exemptions for programmes that provide "abortions, family planning conferences … gender" or diversity programmes, "transgender surgeries, or other nonlife saving assistance." As expected, funding for these programmes will be frozen.
Earlier, Censor.NET reported that Zelenskyy instructed government officials to report on those US support programmes that are currently suspended. Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Iryna Vereshchuk announced talks on resuming funding for humanitarian projects.
Also on 29 January, it became known that a US court had blocked Trump's decision to suspend funding for non-profit organisations.
As reported earlier, USAID has confirmed the complete suspension of funding for all programmes and projects in Ukraine for 90 days to implement the State Department's directive on foreign aid audits. This decision applies to all countries where USAID operates, with the exception of Israel and Egypt.
Ukrainian organisations and local governments are being notified of the need to suspend the implementation of projects funded by USAID or organisations dependent on US funding.
USAID supports projects in more than 100 countries around the world, including in Ukraine, where funds are used to rebuild schools, provide healthcare services, and repair the critical energy system.
In total, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, USAID has allocated $2.6 billion in humanitarian aid to Ukraine and $5 billion in development assistance.
