UN slashes funding in Ukraine

Faced with a drastic drop in funding, the United Nations on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, said it will scale back its humanitarian aid efforts in Ukraine.

An official from its humanitarian affairs office disclosed this information.

In January, the UN appealed for $2.63bn in funding to assist 6 million people who need aid in Ukraine.

But according to Joyce Msuya, due to a “sharp contraction” in humanitarian funding, “the UN and its partners … have further reprioritised” operations in Ukraine to reach 4.8 million people with $1.75bn.

Joyce Msuya works at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and she disclosed this while addressing the UN security council.

“The objective is to reach those most at risk and most in need, centering on four core response priorities: people near the frontline, evacuations, emergency response after strikes, and aid to the most vulnerable among the internally displaced people,” she said.

“Without increased support, even the necessary life-saving efforts could be jeopardized,” she added.

There are 12.7 million people estimated to be in need of aid in Ukraine.

UN agencies have been announcing reductions in their operations and staffing levels around the world.

Their announcements came after major drops in donor contributions, particularly from the US.

President Donald Trump’s administration has reduced funding of its humanitarian agency USAID by 83%.

Until now, USAID alone ran an annual budget of $42.8bn, or 42% of all humanitarian aid disbursed worldwide.

OTHER AREAS THE U.N. IS SLASHING FUNDS

The U.N. World Food Program is expected to cut up to 30% of its staff.

The head of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said it would downsize its headquarters and regional offices to reduce costs by 30% and cut senior-level positions by 50%.

Two U.N. officials who spoke with the Associated Press on condition of  anonymity confirmed the downsizing.

Other agencies like UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, and OCHA, the U.N. humanitarian agency, have also announced, or plan to make cuts.

One WFP official called the cuts “the most massive” seen by the agency in the past 25 years, and that as a result, operations will disappear or be downsized.

The U.N. agency cuts underscore the impact of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. back from its position as the world’s single largest aid donor.

Trump has given billionaire ally Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency power to redo the scale of the federal government, with a focus on slashing foreign assistance.

Even before the administration’s move, many donor nations had reduced humanitarian spending, and U.N. agencies struggled to reach funding goals.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply troubled by the drastic funding reduction.”

“The heads of our humanitarian agencies are being forced to take impossibly painful decisions as budget cuts have an immediate and often deadly impact on the world’s most vulnerable,” Dujarric said in a statement.

“We understand the pressures on national budgets faced by governments, but these cuts come at a time when military spending again hits record levels.”

The U.N. also is engaging in a larger reform effort ahead of its 80th anniversary this summer.

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