Billions in funding were cancelled, thousands of employees fired or put on leave. Since the end of January 2025, the Trump administration has been actively working on the gradual dissolution of the US development agency USAID.
According to United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the measures taken by the US government will lead to the complete dissolution of USAID on the 1st of July.
As the world’s largest donor, USAID funding for Ukraine has so far been completely irreplaceable. It had for example a major impact on the provision of medical care and the reconstruction of damaged and destroyed schools and critical energy infrastructure.
The fact that the absence of new USAID funding is now causing bigger problems for other supporters of Ukraine and Ukraine itself is also evident from the latest example which was made public today.
The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) announced in a press release that as a result of the lack of US aid, it is now forced to reallocate its own funding for projects related to Ukraine.
According to the BMZ, EU funds are also affected. In total, approximately €100 million will have to be spent on the procurement of urgently needed equipment and the repair of substations at the request of the state-owned electricity transmission system operator Ukrenergo.
It was originally planned that the US would provide the funding for this. However, it has been cancelled at short notice.
As a result of the therefore necessary reallocation of German and EU funds, there is now a shortfall of around €100 million, which were originally earmarked for other modernisations and repairs to Ukraine’s electricity grid. Whether additional funds will now be made available has been left open.
It is also planned that the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, together with the EU, will expand its cooperation with the Ukrainian civil society via the EMPOWER project.
On this basis, new funding programmes in the areas of anti-corruption, freedom of speech and strengthening Ukraine’s democracy are to be initiated together with the Federal Foreign Office. This is also being done to replace missing USAID funding.
In the run-up to today’s meeting between the Ukrainian government and an international group of supporters, which is represented on the German side by State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth, the latter said that the permanent halt of US aid would place a heavy burden on Ukraine’s resilience.
The EU would also not be able to fill a permanent gap, even if it is already doing more overall than the US. The existing commitment must now be reorganised to respond to the most acute emergencies, Flasbarth said.
In addition to Ukraine, Germany, and the US, 20 countries, the EU and international organisations are taking part in today’s meeting, which is being held for the first time since USAID funding was largely halted.
Numerous topics such as short, medium and long-term support of Ukraine are on the agenda. The primary focus will certainly be on how to replace as much US aid as possible as quickly as possible. The current example clearly shows that this must be a top priority.
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