One of his first executive orders after taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump suspended aid to all foreign states and organizations. Against this backdrop, the question arises of whether this poses a threat to Ukraine, which has received $66.5 billion in military aid from the United States since 2022.
The executive order, titled Reevaluating And Realigning United States Foreign Aid, states that all government departments and agencies responsible for development assistance programs must suspend new obligations and payments for 90 days.
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The decision to resume payments will be made only after an audit of the programs to verify their alignment with U.S. interests, and their fate will depend on the Secretary of State's decision.
U.S. development assistance programs are a separate type of aid that supports the economic, social, and political development of states and societies. In U.S. government terminology, arms aid to Ukraine is referred to as security assistance, which, according to Trump's decree, appears not to be addressed.
Formally, this means that Trump's decree does not affect military aid to Ukraine. However it may well affect any other types of aid, including the assistance Ukraine receives through USAID for the restoration of damaged infrastructure.
At the same time, the situation with American aid to Ukraine is currently in question. Joe Biden's administration has not been able to use all the funds that were planned for fiscal year 2024.
Under the PDA program, a presidential drawdown that involves delivering weapons from stockpiles, the latest package was announced on January 9. The program ended with $1.05 billion allocated, while another $2.8 billion was returned due to a miscalculation. The money from the USAI program, which was used to order weapons from manufacturers, was fully utilized on December 30.
However, the main problem is not that there are still funds in the PDA account, but rather that the U.S. has not yet approved a budget for the 2025 fiscal year (which began on October 1, 2024), and the draft budget for arms assistance to Ukraine remains unclear.
Earlier Defense Express reported about reasons why Patriot can't counter Oreshnik and even THAAD may fall short.
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