Around 90 percent of Ukrainian media relies on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) cash to survive, according to the director of a Ukrainian non-governmental organization (NGO). Oksana Romaniuk, director of the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), claims that the advertising market in Ukraine dropped by as much as 92 percent following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

According to Romaniuk, the market has never recovered. Advertising revenues account for as little as three to ten percent of regional media revenues. Speaking on USAID, she explained, “The problem is that almost everyone has grants. The question is that for some, these grants amounted to 100 percent of their income, and they could only survive thanks to grants. These grants amounted to 40–60 percent for some, less for others.”

Romaniuk stated that cash for Ukrainian media also came from Europe but that American funding made up the largest amount overall.

Shortly after his inauguration last month, President Donald J. Trump, with a few exceptions, froze foreign aid for 90 days. He has also gutted USAID, which is being absorbed into the U.S. State Department after Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) determined it was unsalvageable.

Romaniuk argued that the funding freeze could weaken democracy in Ukraine. However, there is currently no democracy in Ukraine due to martial law prohibiting any new elections. President Volodymyr Zelenky’s presidential term ended in May last year, but no new elections are currently scheduled.

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