Ukraine has become the top recipient of USAID’s global financial assistance in the past three years since the full escalation of the military conflict in 2022.
Image: Safin Hamid/AFP
Kiev has received 27.2% of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) funds in the past three years, a Sputnik correspondent’s analysis of public data on US foreign assistance has revealed.
Led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who recently called USAID a "criminal organisation," the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has focused on shutting down the US agency that provided financial assistance globally, including economic aid to Ukraine.
However, as Ukraine has become the top recipient of USAID’s global financial assistance in the past three years since the full escalation of the military conflict in 2022, the agency’s closure could pause any future economic aid to Kiev.
According to the latest figures from ForeignAssistance.gov, a US government website promoting transparency, Ukraine began to top USAID’s global spending chart in 2022, when it received $9.95 billion out of the agency’s $41.5 billion in spending that year. In 2023, this increased to $16.43 billion, accounting for 38.8% of the year’s $42.4 billion total. Ukraine continued to lead in 2024, receiving $6.05 billion out of a total of $35.4 billion.
As a result, as the leading beneficiary of USAID funding in the past three years, Ukraine was obligated $32.4 billion, making up 27.2% of the total $119.3 billion distributed by the agency.
At the same time, a large portion of the USAID funding for Kiev has gone into direct budget support for the government of Ukraine.
After an additional $3.9 billion in budget support in August 2024, Ukraine’s total direct budget support from USAID since 2022 reached $26.8 billion, according to the latest report on the overseas contingency operation "Operation Atlantic Resolve" released last November.
According to the latest oversight report on US direct budget support for Ukraine from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released last July, USAID provided this funding to the government of Ukraine through World Bank trust funds, with most of this funding being used to reimburse eligible expenses, such as salaries for teachers, other school employees, civil servants, and healthcare workers.
The GAO report said most of the funding was distributed through the Public Expenditures for Administrative Capacity Endurance in Ukraine (PEACE) project under the World Bank.
According to the World Bank’s latest report on the PEACE project released in November last year, $12.6 billion of the total $29.3 billion (about 43%) reimbursed under the project went toward pension payments in Ukraine as of September 1, 2024. The next largest share, $4.2 billion (about 14.3%), was allocated for reimbursing school employee wages.
Given the uncertainty surrounding USAID's future under the Trump administration, further economic aid to Ukraine could be at risk, raising concerns about whether pensioners and school employees will continue to receive proper payments in the future.
USAID headquarters in Washington was closed on Monday after Musk said that President Donald Trump had agreed to shut down the organisation, an RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the scene. Meanwhile, CBS News reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that USAID would be merged into the State Department and undergo staff reductions while maintaining its commitment to humanitarian efforts.
Sputnik