A number of organizations in Kyiv that receive funding from the United States have begun receiving instructions to cease their activities, according to reports in the Financial Times.
Similar instructions began to arrive on Saturday evening to recipients of funds from the largest American agency, USAID.
One of the messages instructed the contractor to “immediately cease work under the USAID/Ukraine contract/order.” It also stated that the contractor “shall not resume operations… until written notice from the contracting officer rescinding the order to cease work.”.
In particular, programs to support schools and hospitals, as well as the development of economic and energy infrastructure, have been suspended.
The director of one of the NGOs operating in Kyiv told the newspaper that the funding freeze could be “catastrophic” for their NGO.
Meanwhile, according to the FT, American diplomats in Europe have already sent a request to the State Department to resume funding for Ukraine in order to remove it from the 90-day freeze.
“At this point, we do not know whether this request will be approved — in full or in part — but so far there are encouraging signals coming from Washington,” said an email sent to employees of the Ukrainian branch of USAID.
USAID (United States Agency for International Development) is one of the main sources of American funding in Ukraine, including defense support.
