US energy assistance for Ukraine stalls as winter bites

Reuters ^ | Fri, January 30, 2026 | Gram Slattery and Humeyra Pamuk

[MinorityRepublican]

U.S. and European officials are growing increasingly worried as hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. energy assistance previously pledged for Ukraine remain unreleased, even as a bone-cold winter pushes the nation's war‑damaged power grid to the brink, said several sources familiar with the matter.

The funds in question were originally slated to be distributed by the U.S. Agency for ​International Development to help Ukraine import liquefied natural gas and rebuild energy infrastructure damaged by Russian strikes, said the sources, who include a U.S. official and a Ukrainian official.

But after USAID was effectively shuttered in the ‌opening weeks of the Trump administration, some of the funds fell into what the sources described as bureaucratic limbo.

The administration of former President Joe Biden had pledged significant funding for Ukraine's energy infrastructure in multiple funding pots. In mid-2024, for instance, the State Department announced $824 million in energy infrastructure assistance ‌to Ukraine.

While Reuters could not determine the precise value of unspent energy funds, a spokesman for the White House's Office of Management and Budget disputed the characterization of the available monies in general terms. The spokesman said that while there are Ukraine funds available under a program called Assistance for Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia, or AEECA, the Trump administration had never specifically earmarked them for energy infrastructure.

The administration does, however, intend to spend about $250 million of relevant AEECA funds to develop Ukraine's critical minerals sector, the spokesman said, a long-standing goal of the Trump administration.

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TOPICS: Ukraine
KEYWORDS: alreuters; gramslattery; humeyrapamuk; leftistsource; proxywar; putinthewarpig; russiansuicide; tothelastukrainian; ukraine; vladtheimploder; welfarewar

[Third Person]

Europe can pay, except they don’t really care

[dforest]

Yeah, many Americans are needing winter assistance. Who gives a RATs butt about Ukraine? Let the Euros who hate us assist them.

[Engraved-on-His-hands]

With the energy infrastructure problems and cold weather conditions in mind, day before yesterday the EU announced $180 million in humanitarian aid for Ukraine.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

-— “The funds in question...” could be burned to heat homes. Probably not, though, because 1) there are no funds, and 2) if there were, they'd burn through pockets first.

[Veto!]

My very nice new neighbors from Ukraine have relatives back there. They can afford to send money home if it’s needed. I think that’s true of a lot of Ukranian expats.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Not my problem. Those meatheads should read Aesop's story of the grasshopper and the ants. The ants
worked all summer stockpiling provisions for the winter.

The grasshopper goofed off making perverse videos of himself dancing like a woman in high heels.
When winter came, the grasshopper was cold and starving.

The grasshopper was freezing and knocked on the door of the ant hill. The grasshopper
pleaded "Oh please, please, I am cold and hungry".

The Queen of the Ants looked at Zelinsky the Profligate and in a voice marked with the timbre
of authority and wisdom said "Eff you Z-man. Go to hell." And with that she slammed the door to
the ant mound and its stockpile of provisions.

It was a this point that a Russian cruise missile blew off the grasshopper's head, and nary
a trace could be found of him, save for the high heel shoes.

[McGruff]

I could use some Energy assistance myself. How about America First?