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The U.S. State Department has terminated a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative that provided hundreds of millions of dollars to restore Ukraine's energy grid, according to two USAID officials involved in the agency's Ukraine mission.
The decision ends the Ukraine Energy Security Project, a program aimed at supporting Ukraine's power infrastructure, which has sustained repeated damage from Russian military attacks throughout the three-year war. Some regions of Ukraine have experienced overnight power outages due to continued assaults on energy facilities.
Along with shutting down the energy initiative, USAID is scaling back its presence in Ukraine. Before the latest directive from the Trump administration, 64 American government employees and contractors were operating on the ground in Ukraine. That number is set to drop to just eight, after most of the agency's global workforce was placed on administrative leave and non-critical personnel were ordered to return to the U.S.
The two USAID officials cautioned that the agency's withdrawal from Ukraine could leave the country's energy grid vulnerable during the winter as attacks on infrastructure continue. The move also comes as Russia continues its military and economic pressure on Ukraine, with sustained strikes targeting key infrastructure.