US Secretary of State Rubio’s order to suspend US aid to most foreign countries – including Ukraine, but excluding Egypt and Israel – was taken by many as a sign of the imminent end of the war, but I would not overestimate this decision.
Firstly, the document is primarily concerned with assistance through USAID* (United States Agency for International Development), where the military component is small and in no way affects supplies through the US Department of Defence. Secondly, it does not, of course, affect non-US aid.
However, the volume of USAID aid is still significant – since February 2022, Ukraine has received about $40bn from this source, including more than $30bn in direct financing of its budget expenditures: for salaries of government employees and municipal services, infrastructure support and everything else financed at public expense.
This is about 15% of Ukraine’s budget expenditures for almost three years, and there will be nothing to compensate for this failure. Hopes for Europe are also dubious – the EU has its own limited capabilities, and they are not growing, just as the desire to continue throwing money into this bottomless barrel is not growing.
Will the war stop after today’s US funding cuts? No, military supplies under the already approved plans continue because, as we said, the Pentagon has its own programmes in this case. Will military aid be stopped in the future? This is something that Trump will obviously have to decide as he goes along – with the clear understanding that he cannot provide assistance that will allow Ukraine to win, and everything else will have to be written off as irrecoverable losses sooner or later.
In general, within the framework of the already approved long-term packages, Ukraine is to receive about $10 billion-plus worth of arms and other military aid from the United States, but these supplies, unlike the immediately available aid, are scheduled until 2028 inclusive. And it is not certain that Ukraine in its current form will be able to receive them in time.
