U.S. funding freeze threatens Ukraine investigations of alleged Russian war crimes

The Trump administration‘s freeze of foreign funding has begun impacting an international effort to hold Russia responsible for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, according to eight sources and a Ukrainian document seen by Reuters, halting dozens of jobs and tens of millions of dollars in aid.

Ukraine has opened more than 140,000 war crime cases since Moscow’s February 2022 invasion, which has killed tens of thousands, ravaged vast swathes of the country and left behind mental and physical scars from occupation. Russia consistently denies war crimes have been committed by its forces in the conflict.

U.S.-funded international initiatives such as the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group for Ukraine (ACA) have provided expertise and oversight to Ukrainian authorities. Kyiv has been praised by its Western partners for probing alleged crimes while the war is still raging.

At stake are six U.S.-funded projects at the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) valued at $89 million, according to a Ukrainian document on the U.S. funding and cuts seen by Reuters.

Funding for at least five of those projects has already been frozen, according to five sources directly involved, who cited interruptions in payments. The affected worked on issues ranging from the preservation of evidence from the battlefield to anti-corruption initiatives and reform of Ukraine’s prosecution system.

Two of the listed projects were funded by USAID, three by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement and one directly by the Department of State, the document showed.

Of that funding, $47 million was directly allocated to war crimes accountability, the document showed.

The impacts on war crimes programmes described by the sources and the document have not previously been reported. Nearly all of the sources spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

While the programmes do not directly impact Ukraine’s frontline efforts to fend off Russia’s onslaught, supporters say they represent the best chance of extensively documenting reported battlefield atrocities in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two, now grinding toward a fourth year.

Funding for at least five of those projects has already been frozen, according to five sources directly involved, who cited interruptions in payments. The affected worked on issues ranging from the preservation of evidence from the battlefield to anti-corruption initiatives and reform of Ukraine’s prosecution system.

Two of the listed projects were funded by USAID, three by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement and one directly by the Department of State, the document showed.

Of that funding, $47 million was directly allocated to war crimes accountability, the document showed.

The impacts on war crimes programmes described by the sources and the document have not previously been reported. Nearly all of the sources spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

While the programmes do not directly impact Ukraine’s frontline efforts to fend off Russia’s onslaught, supporters say they represent the best chance of extensively documenting reported battlefield atrocities in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two, now grinding toward a fourth year.

Reuters could not establish whether the affected projects were specifically targeted or victims of the broad sweep of the 90-day freeze on foreign aid Trump announced upon taking office on January 20.

The White House, the State Department and Ukraine’s prosecutor did not respond to requests for comment about the impact and purpose of the cuts.

NO MONEY TO PAY STAFF

Among the impacts of the spending freeze, nearly 40 experts provided through Georgetown’s International Criminal Justice Initiative, ACA’s lead implementing entity, have stopped working, according to two of the sources.

ACA and Georgetown’s press office did not respond to a request for comment. Two members of the programme declined to comment.

On its website, ACA, which is also funded by the EU and Britain, said it has provided more than 150 experts with “decades of experience” to help Ukrainian prosecutors.

One source involved in supplying outside legal experts to Ukraine said: “Some partners have no more money to pay their staff.”

Another source said an advisor in the PGO was put on leave and a project to provide support for the victims of conflict-related sexual violence had also been suspended.

Ukrainian non-governmental organisations have also been impacted. Representatives from two such groups have told Reuters that their work collecting evidence from victims and documenting damages could be impacted, or had already been frozen.

“Our organization…will continue to exist, but we will look for alternative sources of independent funding and accordingly will continue working in this field, just in a limited way,” said Oleksandr Pavlichenko of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, an alliance of Ukrainian human rights groups.

The group has halted the work of its regional offices in Ukraine after the U.S. freeze cut around 75% of its annual budget.

The head of another Ukrainian organisation that assists in the collection of war crimes evidence and trains legal professionals said the group also had to partly cease operations.

If new funding is not found, jobs will be cut in three months, the source said, requesting anonymity to speak frankly on a sensitive issue that has not yet been resolved.

SYSTEM IN PLACE

Since the first weeks of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine’s international partners have made accountability for alleged Russian crimes a key part of their support for the war-torn country.

Yevhen Krapyvin of the Centre for Policy and Legal Reform in Kyiv said U.S. support, particularly from USAID, had been vital earlier in the war.

For example, it funded an 800-page handbook for judges adjudicating war-crimes trials for the first time. Foreign experts have proven valuable because of the know-how they brought from previous conflicts, he added.

Ukrainian authorities had since gained valuable experience as a result of the infrastructure Kyiv’s foreign partners put in place, he said, downplaying the negative impact of the funding cut on Ukrainian efforts to investigate and prosecute alleged crimes.

“Right now, this system is more or less stable, and the experts are there,” Krapyvin said. “Of course, you always want more of them, but this system has been built.”

However, a loss of U.S. leadership in the effort could have wide-ranging effects, said a source with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. “Perpetrators are emboldened and we all lose,” the source said.

Many NGOs have come to rely on American assistance and people are “in shock,” said a source at a Ukrainian advocacy group with a long history of war-crimes related work, who also asked not to be named to speak about sensitive matters.

The freeze has also impacted the planned launch of an American-funded case management system that is part of a broader effort to help modernise Ukraine’s judiciary, said Leonid Sapelnikov, deputy head of Ukraine’s State Judicial Administration, in charge of digitisation.

Cleaning up and strengthening the judicial system is central to Kyiv’s bid to join the European Union.

“If the (case management) system works, we expect that the effectiveness of the judiciary will increase and it will be possible to hear more cases,” Sapelnikov said, adding that Ukraine would seek alternative sources of funding for the project, without giving details. (Reuters)