US suspends aid to Ukraine – Politico

Source: RT News and Politico

Date: January 24, 2025

The Trump administration has reportedly frozen assistance grants as part of a broader foreign policy audit

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has frozen nearly all aid grants to Ukraine for 90 days, Politico reported on Friday. The move comes after President Donald Trump ordered a review of all foreign assistance.

Rubio instructed all diplomatic and consular posts to issue “stop-work orders” on nearly all “existing foreign assistance awards,” Politico said, citing an internal document.

According to Politico, the order has “shocked” State Department officials and appears to apply to funding for military assistance to Ukraine.

The magazine cited three current and two former officials familiar with the matter as saying that Rubio’s guidance means that “no further actions will be taken to disperse aid funding to programs already approved by the US government.”

The BBC, which also reviewed the State Department memo, reported that it appears to “affect everything from development assistance to military aid.”

Journalist Ken Klippenstein posted what he said was a copy of Rubio’s guidance, which “pauses all new obligations of funding, pending a review, for foreign assistance programs” funded through the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Trump administration just suspended all new foreign aid pending review, per State Department cable leaked to me (1/2) pic.twitter.com/MvE8aNo2XZ— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) January 24, 2025

Trump, who took office on Monday, has previously ordered a 90-day suspension of all “foreign development assistance for assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy.”