Save Ukraine – a frontline organisation which sets up rescue missions to return children taken by Russia and provides recovery support – lost more than $3m in funding from the shutdown of USAID earlier this year. To date, Save Ukraine has rescued 612 deported children.
The closure, first revealed by The i Paper, sparked outrage around the world, before being reversed by the State Department on Friday.
According to the Congressional Research Service, USAID’s budget was $44bn in 2024.
Tesla CEO and US government official Elon Musk wears a ‘Trump Was Right About Everything!’ hat while attending a cabinet meeting at the White House, in DC (Photo: Reuters/Carlos Barria/File Photo)
Mykola Kuleba – former Children’s Commissioner of Ukraine, head of Kyiv’s Children’s Services and founder of Save Ukraine – said the charity had to reduce its capacity because of the cuts.
“This cut has decreased our capacity. But on the other hand… we believe that we will have more support from European allies and from the UK. The US is our strong partner and we believe that soon, President Trump’s administration will make the right decision to increase support for humanitarian issues.”
Ukraine’s stolen children
The number of children stolen by Russia is unknown, but there have been more than 19,500 reports of “unlawful deportation and forced transfer of children” and around 1,240 children so far been repatriated, according to Bring Kids Back UA, an initiative launched by President Volodymyr Zelensky to rescue the children.
Kuleba said Russia was attempting to “indoctrinate children and use them for the future wars”.
“The intention of Putin totally destroy us and annihilate Ukrainian identity,” he said. “[Putin] needs girls to birth children and boys to be soldiers for his empire.”
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the the UK will “do everything” it can to help end the “grotesque” abduction of Ukrainian children.
The Kremlin denies wrongdoing, claiming the adoptions by Russians are to help “abandoned” children.
Many children they support have disabilities, and some have experienced sexual abuse, Mr Kuleba said.
Ukrainian children play in a crater, caused by Russian missile strikes, at the Taras Shevchenko Park in Kyiv, in 2022 (Photo: Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)“Many boys have been taken into the Russian army. I can give you tons of stories of children who have suffered in occupied territories, how their parents have been killed or arrested. That’s why support we receive goes to provide rescues, rehabilitation and reintegration for those children.
The Alliance of Ukrainian Civil Society Organisations, a union of 16 non-profits working to support Ukrainians whose lives have been devastated by the conflict, told The i Paper its members had collectively lost $84m (£64m) from the USAID cuts.
The Alliance warned that the cuts had left frontline organisations facing “immediate operational collapse, leaving vulnerable communities without essential aid and services.”
Russian drones have been deadly when hitting civilian sites like this apartment block in Kyiv (Photo: Roman Petushkov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)Mila Leonova, founder of the Alliance, said it had been “very dependent” on this funding and were now relying more on other partners and direct donations from Ukrainians.
Peace deal ‘must include return of stolen children’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the issue of children stolen by Russia would be central to the peace negotiations which are ongoing between the US and Russia.
Secretatry of State Marco Rubio earlier had said the Ukrainians “need to get the children” back as part of any peace settlement.
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“We cannot have children as a bargaining chip to exchange for fewer sanctions,” he said.
“If he takes Ukraine, he will move forward to take back to his empire, other post Soviet countries. It is a test for Europe. It is a test for the whole civilized world, if we are ready to stand against totalitarian regimes. If we will show other regimes that it’s not appropriate to come to any country, to invade, to steal children and to indoctrinate them,” he said.
The White House was approached for comment.
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