US diplomats have made an urgent appeal for Ukraine-related programs to be exempted from a 90-day halt on foreign aid and “stop work” orders enacted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as indicated by documents reviewed by the Financial Times and individuals informed about the situation, Report informs.

Pointing to national security issues, senior diplomats in the State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian

Affairs have urged Rubio to provide a complete waiver to exempt the activities of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in Ukraine from Brazil Cell Phone Number List the broad directive that took effect immediately after its release on Friday.

“We currently do not know if this request will be fully or partially accepted — but there are encouraging indications thus far from Washington,” stated an email sent to USAID personnel in Ukraine on Saturday that was examined by the FT.

According to the email and officials from some partner organizations, USAID in Ukraine has temporarily refrained from issuing “stop work” orders while the exemption request is under review.

The agency has also instructed staff to evaluate programs “and discover ways for them to better align with the secretary of state’s mandate to enhance the safety, strength, and prosperity of the US.”

However, by Saturday evening in Kyiv, some organizations started receiving “stop work” orders.

One such order disclosed by an organization to the FT directed “the contractor to immediately cease work under the USAID/Ukraine contract/task order” that the organization had been awarded.

The order indicated that the contractor “shall not recommence work . . . until a written notification has been received from the Contracting Officer stating that this Stop Work Order has been revoked.”

The State Department, USAID, and the US embassy in Kyiv did not reply to requests for comments.

In an internal communication dispatched on Friday to the State Department and USAID, acquired by the FT, Rubio mandated that all new foreign aid disbursements be halted. Contracting and grant officials were instructed to “immediately issue stop work orders . . . until such a time as the secretary shall decide, following a review.”

The review, which is anticipated to last up to 85 days, places the future of numerous US foreign aid contracts — valued at over $70bn in the 2022 fiscal year — in uncertainty

Officials and NGO personnel in Ukraine, where Russia's full-scale war will enter its fourth year next month, have cautioned that without a waiver from President Donald Trump’s new Secretary of State, initiatives such as support for schools and hospitals alongside economic and energy infrastructure development projects are at risk.

A program director from an NGO operating in Kyiv mentioned that the funding freeze might be a “disaster” for their organization and Ukraine.

There are certain exceptions to Rubio's directive, including “approved waivers” for military financing for Israel and Egypt, as well as foreign emergency Brazil Phone Number Address food assistance. However, the communication does not mention any such exemption for Ukraine, which depends on Washington for military aid to combat Russia.

The State Department and US embassy in Kyiv did not respond to inquiries seeking clarification on Rubio’s directive regarding new military aid for Ukraine.

Nevertheless, a Ukrainian government official knowledgeable about the situation confirmed to the FT that US military support did not fall under the freeze order. “Military aid to Ukraine is intact,” the official stated. “At least for now, and it is certainly not included in this 90-day freeze.”