US State Department announces 90-day suspension of foreign aid

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has issued an order to suspend funding for most foreign aid programs, including support for Ukraine, for 90 days.

This was reported by Politico, citing a document, sources familiar with the order, and Reuters, as reported by Rubryka.

According to the document obtained by Politico, State Department officials have been instructed to "stop-work orders" of nearly all "existing foreign assistance awards." The decision takes immediate effect and may impact already approved programs, including military aid to Ukraine.

On Friday, Secretary Rubio issued new instructions to pause spending on most foreign aid programs for 90 days, Politico reports. The order, which surprised many State Department officials, appears to include funding for military aid to Ukraine.

A cable reviewed by Reuters—drafted by the State Department's foreign assistance division and approved by Secretary Rubio—indicates exceptions for military funding to Israel and Egypt. However, it does not mention other countries, according to Reuters.

One current State Department official, plus two former Biden administration officials, said the pause appears to stop aid to key allies such as Ukraine, Jordan and Taiwan.

Additionally, a representative of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) informed Reuters that staff overseeing projects in Ukraine had been instructed to halt all activities.

"Among the frozen projects are support for schools and healthcare assistance, particularly emergency aid for mothers and child vaccinations," the official said.

Voice of America correspondent Ostap Yarysh posted on social media platform X:

"The Pentagon tells me the opposite, saying that this decree does not affect military support. I suspect it may be related to the FMF program (Foreign Military Financing – ed.), but the funds allocated for Ukraine's support have already been spent."

Jeremy Konyndyk, a former USAID employee and current president of Refugees International, told Reuters that "it will kill people" if the order is "implemented as it is written in that cable."

"There's no way to consider this as a good-faith attempt to sincerely review the effectiveness of foreign assistance programming. This is just simply a wrecking ball to break as much stuff as possible," Konyndyk said.

What preceded?

On January 20, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily suspending all foreign assistance programs for 90 days. The purpose of this decision is to assess their alignment with the foreign policy goals of his administration.

The executive order allows Marco Rubio or his designee to make decisions regarding foreign aid after consulting with the Office of Management and Budget.

The Pentagon has clarified that security assistance to Ukraine "is not affected by the restrictions of the recent foreign assistance order, as it only applies to development programs, not military support." Therefore, Trump's executive order does not impact contracts for weapons manufacturing for Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) program, which was established during the Joe Biden administration.

Additionally, the executive order does not apply to remaining and planned supplies of weapons from US stockpiles under the Presidential Stockpile Reduction Authority (PDA), as announced by Biden. It is reported that around $3.8 billion allocated for the PDA program will remain unused, despite the White House's promise to spend the full amount by the end of Biden's term.

Donald Trump had previously assured that he would "not abandon Ukraine" in his efforts to resolve the Russia-Ukraine war and expressed hope that the conflict could be ended within six months.