The Inspectors General for the Department of Defense, Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development conduct oversight of and report on the overseas contingency operation "Operation Atlantic Resolve (OAR)," including U.S. Government activities related to Ukraine, pursuant to Section 1250B of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 and Lead IG reporting responsibilities under 5 U.S.C. 419. This report also discusses the planned, ongoing, and completed oversight work conducted by the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of State (State), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Offices of Inspector General, as well as the other U.S. oversight agencies that coordinate their activities through the Ukraine Oversight Interagency Working Group. OAR is the U.S. contingency operation to deter Russian aggression against NATO and to reassure and bolster the alliance in the wake of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. OAR also includes security assistance activities in support of Ukraine.
On January 20, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order for an immediate 90-day pause on U.S. foreign assistance pending a review of all programs. As a result, nearly all State- and USAID-funded foreign assistance programs in Ukraine came to a halt. Some programs, particularly those that provide life-saving humanitarian assistance, continued under waivers. The USAID mechanism for conducting third-party monitoring of development assistance programs was terminated. On March 10, Secretary Rubio announced that State was canceling 5,200 USAID awards, worldwide—83 percent of USAID programs. While some State and USAID offices provided information about the status of individual programs, others declined citing the pending completion of the foreign assistance review.
During FY 2025 Q1, the U.S. Government disbursed $20 billion to a World Bank-managed trust fund for Ukraine. This transaction involved the transfer by USAID of $535.25 million from the Economic Support Fund to USAID’s Sovereign Credit Program Account at the Department of the Treasury (Treasury), where it was obligated for loan guarantee subsidy costs. Of the total appropriations for the Ukraine response, $45.22 billion is for governance and development programs administered by State, USAID, Treasury, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, U.S. Agency for Global Media, and Export-Import Bank of the United States. USAID, which administers DBS programming and funding through the Economic Support Fund, has disbursed $30.21 billion in DBS to Ukraine from 2022 to December 31, 2024. During the quarter, USAID obligated $86.8 million for development assistance, compared to $1.1 billion the previous quarter. USAID BHA had a total of 31 active awards at the beginning of the quarter totaling nearly $984 million. USAID BHA supported food assistance, cash transfers for food purchases, and delivery of medical supplies, medicines, and emergency health assistance. Life-saving humanitarian activities were allowed to continue during the review period, according to USAID BHA.
USAID Ukraine, which administers USAID’s development programs, reported that, as of the end of the quarter, 27 of its awards were designated for termination, 5 remained under the stop-work order, and 11 were restarted. The sole USAID Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) program in Ukraine, the Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative, was also terminated. USAID Ukraine requested waivers for 17 awards, of which none had been granted by the end of the quarter. USAID Ukraine staff completed 23 site visits prior to the foreign assistance pause, compared to 89 visits during the previous quarter. Once the pause was in effect, nearly all site visits by USAID staff were canceled. USAID staff were able to resume site visits and completed one visit in March to monitor HIV medication supply chain programming. Further visits for approved programs were planned for next quarter, according to USAID Ukraine. USAID BHA’s Disaster Assistance Response Team conducted eight site visits during the quarter to directly monitor implementer activities. All other planned visits were suspended due to the foreign assistance pause. The contract for USAID BHA’s third-party monitoring mechanism received a stop-work order, which was later rescinded to allow monitoring to continue. Payments to the contractor were delayed, causing some monitoring visits to be canceled or postponed.
Read the full report and report-in-brief.