US diplomats urge State Department to exempt Ukraine from temporary aid freeze - FT

U.S. diplomats have asked the State Department to urgently exempt Ukraine from a 90-day suspension of foreign aid. This order was previously issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, but the officials now insist that an exception be made for programs related to supporting Ukraine.

Financial Times reports about this with reference to documents and informed sources. Rubio was approached by senior diplomats from the State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.

They asked him to exclude the work of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Ukraine from the wide-ranging directive, which came into effect immediately after its release on Friday, January 24.

"We do not know at this time whether this request will be approved — in whole or in part — but there are positive signals thus far out of Washington," reads an email sent to USAID Ukraine staff on Saturday.

Despite Rubio's order, USAID in Ukraine reportedly temporarily refrained from issuing shutdown orders until it could provide clarity to its partners. However, by the evening of Saturday, January 25, some organizations in Kyiv indeed began receiving stop-work orders.

"Ukrainian officials and NGOs warned that Trump administration's order could jeopardize critical initiatives, such as support for schools, hospitals and economic development," the article says.

As reported, on January 24, the media reported that the US State Department had issued a "shutdown" order for all existing foreign aid and suspended new aid to comply with President Donald Trump's order. Representatives of the USAID agency, which is responsible for non-military US assistance to other countries, were also instructed to stop projects related to Ukraine.

On January 25, it became known that USAID officials had stopped working in Ukraine and a number of other countries where the agency operates. Projects in Ukraine to support schools and medical care, including emergency maternal care and childhood vaccinations, were put on hold.

At the same time, there are currently no restrictions on military aid to Ukraine. They concern only humanitarian issues, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized.

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