Some 400 calls for help went unanswered when the helpline at Ukraine\u2019s Veteran Hub went silent for a week after key funding from the United States was abruptly cut last month. <\/p>\n
The Ukrainian NGO gets all sorts of calls. Some come from military families who have just found out their loved one was killed on the frontline. Some are from injured veterans who are struggling to cope with their return to civilian life or need help navigating the bureaucracy. <\/p>\n
And some calls can save lives. <\/p>\n
Kostyna and her colleagues had no choice but to shut the helpline down last month after receiving a stop-work order from the United States Department of State \u2013 a direct consequence of President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to suspend nearly all US foreign aid. <\/p>\n
The freeze is already causing hardship across Ukraine, with lifesaving projects suddenly put on hold. <\/p>\n
Ukraine has been by far the biggest recipient of USAID funds in the past three years, ever since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022. <\/p>\n
According to the agency\u2019s now defunct website, USAID has provided Ukraine with a total of $37.6 billion in humanitarian aid, development assistance and direct budget support since the full-scale war began. <\/p>\n
Trump and his allies have said the agency, created by the US legislature as an independent body, is overtly partisan. Opposition lawmakers and former USAID administrators from both political parties have rejected that assertion and called for America\u2019s foreign assistance programs to be protected. <\/p>\n
After the European Union, the US is Ukraine\u2019s biggest donor of humanitarian aid, providing more than a quarter of all the country receives. It is by far the biggest donor of military aid. <\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his government was trying to find alternative sources of funding from within Ukraine and abroad. \u201cThese are areas that the government cannot provide for because the government doesn\u2019t have enough money because the government is funding the army,\u201d Kostyna said. <\/p>\n
But the impact of the suspension goes way beyond the funding. <\/p>\n
Kostyna said that many of the hub\u2019s employees are either the main or sole breadwinners in their families, which means they cannot afford to be on unpaid leave. Most are highly qualified, with years of experience. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo not only would we lose that person but, if the funding comes back, we\u2019d have to rebuild, and we would lose six months training the next person. This is why continuity is so important,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Vykhid has been a USAID partner since 2004. It serves roughly 5,000 clients at any given time, including drug users, newly diagnosed people and long-term patients. <\/p>\n
The foundation relies on USAID for more than half of its funding, although there were times in the past when it was its only source. \u201cWe realized (then) that it is impossible to have only one donor for the organization to exist and we tried to have diversified sources of funding \u2013 thank God that we still have that,\u201d Goriacheva said. <\/p>\n
The foundation has had to shut down a key project focused on detection of new HIV cases since the freeze was announced, Goriacheva said. Ukraine has the highest prevalence of HIV in Europe and one of the highest outside Africa. The country experienced a rapidly spreading epidemic in the 1990s and, while rates have since dropped, early detection remains crucial. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are very few (people) doing this type of work. Doctors who worked with us for six years were receiving remuneration from us for any new patient they identified,\u201d she said. \u201cNow that the project has closed, some of them have stopped doing this activity completely.\u201d <\/p>\n
The foundation also provides other assistance to people living with HIV. It received a request last week to cover the cost of an MRI scan for a severely ill HIV patient in an intensive care unit. <\/p>\n
The hospital turned to Vykhid, but because of the stop-work order Goriacheva had to turn the request down. Thankfully, she said, the hospital was able to find funding elsewhere. <\/p>\n
The sudden nature of the funding freeze has made the situation particularly difficult. The order came without warning, effectively pulling the plug on hundreds of projects across Ukraine. <\/p>\n
Kostyna said that anyone working in the non-profit sector knows that funding sources can dry up. \u201cBut it never crossed our mind that it could stop in a day. And it\u2019s not about the money, it\u2019s about the fact that we had zero warning, and we had no way to cover (the cuts) because we are not allowed to put money aside,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Goriacheva said that earlier this week, she was told by USAID subcontractors that some of the projects \u2013 those deemed essential \u2013 were being restored. <\/p>\n
\u201cNot in full. But those services that are vital are being restored,\u201d she said, adding that she is now reaching out to her former project coordinators to figure out how to proceed. <\/p>\n
The rural community of Shevchenkove in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine has been hit hard by the war. It was partially occupied for nine months after the full-scale invasion. The head of the local administration, Oleh Pylypenko, was detained by Russian forces. <\/p>\n
Ukrainian forces liberated the area in November 2022, but the damage suffered during the occupation was extensive. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that was destroyed had to be rebuilt, and everything that was occupied had to be rebuilt,\u201d said Pylypenko, who was released in a prisoner swap. <\/p>\n
Health was a major issue for the community following the lengthy occupation, he said. Doctors and healthcare professionals funded by foreign aid money, including USAID, set up diagnostic clinics and have been distributing free medicines. All of the services that relied solely on USAID funding have now been suspended. <\/p>\n
Pylypenko said he doubts that other international donors can match the funds previously provided by USAID. \u201cI think (the situation) is on the verge of a disaster,\u201d he said, adding that even if the programs are restarted after the initial 90-day freeze announced by Trump, it will take much longer to get them back up and running. <\/p>\n
This delay will have a significant impact on the community, he said. One local project funded by USAID was focused on setting up emergency educational spaces. These are fully equipped classrooms in safe locations with access to shelters, where children whose schools were destroyed can attend in-person classes. <\/p>\n
One was opened recently in the region, and another was supposed to open in March. Pylypenko said the children who were due to attend had seen their original schools destroyed during the occupation, only for another at which they were attending classes to be hit by a Russian drone last summer. <\/p>\n
Pylypenko now hopes they can have the new space ready for September, but if Trump\u2019s freeze is renewed, alternative funding will need to be found, \u201cGod willing.\u201d <\/p>\n
But what worries Pylypenko the most is the freeze impacting Ukraine\u2019s access to the training programs provided by USAID. These tend to focus on local government, anti-corruption, efficiency and democracy-building, and they are key for Ukraine\u2019s future development, as well as its hopes of eventually joining the European Union. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese were good training programs, plus there was exchange of experiences with the best communities, and the level (of performance) rose significantly,\u201d he said, likening the USAID programs to the proverb about teaching people to fish, rather than just sending them fish to eat. <\/p>\n
Kostyna first launched the Veteran Hub in 2016, after a firsthand experience with trauma. Her friend, 19-year-old Ustym Holodnyuk, was killed by a sniper at Kyiv\u2019s Maidan, or Independence Square, during the 2014 protests. She struggled for a long time without support. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt didn\u2019t even (cross) my mind to reach out for help, to reach out to a psychologist. And now, fast forward 10 years, and the impact that we, among others, have managed to achieve is that there is a large change in how people perceive this, we see a rising number of veterans (who say) they trust psychologists,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Kostyna said that the consistency in the US foreign aid program meant that she and her colleagues were able to build something that was unheard of in Ukraine just a decade ago: a comprehensive veterans\u2019 affairs (support?) service. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe now have taxi drivers bringing people in when they\u2019re in distress. So they would sit in a taxi, share their story, and the taxi driver would (make a detour) and bring them to us\u2026 they do this regularly,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Most of those working at the Veteran Hub are relatives of veterans, active service members, or people who have experienced trauma, she said. Like many in Ukraine, they are struggling to make ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck. <\/p>\n
Yet when the stop-work order came in, staff at one of their two centers refused to leave. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn the week of the freeze, when we didn\u2019t have funding, our Vinnytsia hub remained open, even though we couldn\u2019t pay our employees. They didn\u2019t receive (a) salary, but they all showed up to work on Monday, wearing uniforms, and they continued working,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
There was some good news that week. After three days of intense fundraising efforts, the Veteran Hub managed to secure enough money to keep the helpline open for three months and get 14 people back to work. A few days later it received assurances from local businesses and the Vinnytsia city council that they will provide funding until the Veteran Hub finds a long-term solution. <\/p>\n
The fact that she didn\u2019t have to shutter the hub was a lifesaver, Kostyna said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many people who just turn up,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was a veteran who lost his documents, and he was referred to us because he was literally homeless, and he was looking for shelter and he needed medicine, and we were able to assist him.\u201d <\/p>\n
If the hub\u2019s doors were to close, people like him would find themselves with nowhere else to go. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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