The State Department, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has pulled U.S. support for a major initiative to restore Ukraine’s war-torn energy grid.
According to an NBC News report, Rubio terminated a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) program aimed at repairing damage from Russian military strikes. The decision surfaced shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was abruptly ushered out of the White House following an aborted meeting:
“It significantly undercuts this administration’s abilities to negotiate on the ceasefire, and it’d signal to Russia that we don’t care about Ukraine or our past investments,” one USAID official involved in the Ukraine mission told NBC News.
The official continued: “Russia is fighting a two-pronged war in Ukraine: A military one but also an economic one. They’re trying to crush the economy, but USAID has played a central role in helping it be resilient, [including] shoring up the energy grid…We’ve provided vast amount of support to the Ukrainian government to avoid a macro economic crisis.”
In addition to ending the Ukraine Energy Security Project, USAID is also dramatically downsizing its presence in Ukraine.
Before the Trump administration’s latest moves, 64 American government employees and contractors were serving on the ground in Ukraine for the agency. Just eight of those personnel are slated to remain on the ground in the war-torn country after the Trump administration placed its remaining global workforce on administrative leave and ordered those workers not deemed “critical” to return to the U.S.
The latest developments follow growing tensions between Presidents Trump and Zelensky, which escalated in recent weeks. Friday’s initially polite meeting turned contentious, with Vice President JD Vance and President Trump delivering a sharp rebuke after Zelensky criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin’s repeated violations of international law.
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Way to go, folks! I think at least half that money sent found its way back into the pockets of crooked politicians.
We are quickly becoming pro-Russian. There is obviously an economic payoff here. Nothing humanitarian, of course. Russia has been at our throats for over a century, and we continue to kiss her feet. We give concessions to Putin, and we will take that as permission to invade other lands without fear of reprisals. Russian money killed our soldiers in Korea, Viet Nam, and many other places, and still, we pamper them.
This is one issue I disagree with Trump on. I think we need to help defeat Russia.
Poorly written opinion piece
Good Move!