How Trump USAID cuts affects the civilians of Ukraine star-news.press/wp

It is an icy February in Vinnytsia, a city in Western Ukraine in which families were displaced in the war. For Maryna, 42, the struggle for renovation of life was demolished by the conflict is far from all over again. The mother who escaped from Kherson with his son describes the emotional and physical creation of displacement. “After moving to Vinnytsia, I asked for any chance to adjust. The war took my home and my sense of stability and the hardest saw that my child suffers,” she said Newsweek.

Maryna found comfort in programs that support NGOs like the spring of hope, which helps internally displaced people. These initiatives provided vital psychological support and space for healing through group activities and family events. “It was a way to stay in water, don’t lose yourself and help your son adjust,” she remembers. But now, with the confiscation of USAID, these critical services have disappeared. “We no longer have a place to arrive, where we felt understood, where we could at least be briefly distracted from permanent anxiety,” she added. Without that support, he cares that her son will withdraw to the isolation he endured at the beginning of the war.

President Donald Trump announced that his administration plans to eliminate almost all the remaining positions in the US International Development Agency (USAID). With programs already suspended, over 90 percent of staff or on leave or displacement, the State Secretary Marco Rubio announced earlier this month that reductions have already canceled 83 percent of foreign assistance agreements. These reductions are discovered by fragile support systems that have helped prevent many Ukrainians fall into despair.

In a small town on the front point, Jurij Boyechko, Executive Director of NGO NADE in Ukraine, says Newsweek That one of the areas that most affects Trump Freezing wood protection wood programs served by Frontline villages. “We have delivered a truck full of wood for the older woman’s yard. She dated the piece, she kissed and cried – because it means,” He remembers. Firewood, simple need, is now the most precious than bread with the inhabitants of Marhanet, a city only 10 kilometers from the territory of Russian.

Almost 45,000 city inhabitants face daily bombings and drone strikes. The situation in March remains difficult as residents are anxiously awaiting confirmation of truce, but they are still forced to seek refuge, trapped in the conflict crossing. On 25. March 2025. The Russian forces launched massive drone attacks on the Dnipropetrov region, including Marhanets and Nicopol, denoting one of the largest and most intense attacks of war to date.

With the infrastructure of the region, the bombing of the permanent threat was destroyed, these volunteers are the only hope that families try to be warm in brutal winter months. Boyechko’s team drives truck firewood from the western part of Ukraine in these devastated communities. “When we made a couple in the 70s in Marhanets in the Dnipro region, the husbands eyes well tears tears. Without it they would not have way to stay warm”, volunteers, and stocks.

But stopping USAID funding takes its toll. “Once the freezing enters into effect, their funds will be dry and will not be able to work,” says Boyechko. Small NGOs enter in order to fulfill the blanks are fighting for mobilization without resources on which they rely on. Boyechko’s team tries to find alternative ways to firewood for firewood, but without enough money for gas or logistics, efforts can soon stop. “We are talking about small amounts – about $ 3,000 to $ 5,000 for a firewood truck,” he adds, emphasizing that every penny is counted for these volunteers.

According to current estimates, Boyechko states that about 40 percent of the Ukrainian population – about 14.6 million people – requires some form of humanitarian aid.

Psychological wounds of war can be less visible, but they are obvious. Oksana, who ran away with the occupied territories with only alone, left behind a family fearful that she might never see again. “In the new city, I felt lost, I didn’t know where I started, who he didn’t talk to,” she remembers. Her decision on leaving was painful, torn between hope for safety and guilt of leaving his loved ones.

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It wasn’t until the murmur reached to the spring of hope she began to heal. The support she received included informative counseling, individual psychological aid, food package and hygiene kit. Asking additional assistance, four mutual assistance groups joined and attended training on psychological self-help, combating gender-based violence and financial literacy. “They pulled me out of the darkest thoughts and they returned me to life,” she says. But as Maryna, oxen fears for those who are still fighting without support. “I don’t know how others will manage without this help … so many people still desperately need,” he cares. Daily, new displaced families arrive in the city, their future insecure. “How will he wear without this support?”

Stopping in USAID funds left critical mental health programs, such as those from the United Help of Ukraine (ear), in danger. Meryna Baydyuk, Executive Director of Uhu, talks about the extended programs that helped families like Maryna. “We train more therapists to expand our reach and increase specialized training and training tailored to the unique needs of adolescents,” says Baydyuk. However, with Fund Freeze, these programs are now seriously limited.

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Boyechko, the founder of hope in Ukraine, who saw the influence of freezing first, while the decision could not bring much difference in the United States, even small amounts of assistance. “Cutting that won’t make a difference in the US, but here even $ 5,000 can change everything,” he says.

Cuts to mental health support are deep. Without these services, the psychological toll of the war will only deepen, according to Baydyuk, President Uhu. It states: “It will pass decades and generations to fully recover. This is in accommodation, renewing cities, homes, lives, health, mental health and education.”

Another high consequence of freezing is an impact on adult objects with special needs in Ukraine. Boyechko said that before the war, the property called Hrushkivs’kyy Psychhonevrolohichyy’s internat, located in Yaktoriv in the Lviv region, located about 120 to 150 inhabitants, but the conditions were bad. “When the war escalated, about 200 internally displaced persons with special needs were moved from the east, Boyechko said Newsweek.

In response, USAID helped restore the facility, allowing him to receive over 300 people. Without this assistance, these individuals faced heavy conditions without space for additional displaced people.

Similarly, in Kharkovo, the northern town, only 19 miles from the Russian border, many children attend school underground to protect them from air strikes. These underground schools, which are built with the help of USAID, are vital to ensure child safety while maintaining its education. Assistance has proven necessary in the security protection and future of Kharkov and Yaktoriva inhabitants in the Lviv region.

Even with recent Court interventions for USAID stabilization, including returning to critical systems and stop further termination, and the agency faces significant obstacles. Boyechko said that even if the situation stabilizes in the coming months, it will last months, and probably longer, to restart vital programs such as those helping displaced Ukrainians. “This means that we will watch a delay from six to nine months before the basic services and support systems are completely renovated.” For Ukrainians, the immediate impact is clear: the delay of assistance and programs will worsen only their already fragile situation.