Major Ukrainian media outlets are asking for donations following the Trump administration’s 90-day foreign aid pause since many of them are funded by the US government.
Ukrainian-Canadian professor and researcher Ivan Katchanovski noted on X that the Ukrainian online newspaper Strana.ua reported that two outlets — Hromadske and BIHUS.Info — acknowledged in their fundraising pitches that they lost US funding.
BIHUS.Info said in a Facebook post that a “large portion” of its work had been funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). “Therefore, now the role of donations from viewers is changing from an alternative source to one of the key ones. What will happen in 90 days, we do not know, but we know one thing: now is the time to find out whether our work is really needed by Ukrainian society,” the post said.
Hromadske said that some of the “projects that we implement thanks to grants are temporarily stopped. That is why we especially need the support of each and every one of you.”
Other major Ukrainian outlets, including Ukrainska Pravda and Detector Media, also began asking for donations following the pause in US foreign aid but did not explicitly name that as the reason they’re fundraising.
Katchanovski, author of the book “The Maidan Massacre in Ukraine,” said many of the US-funded media outlets whitewashed the Ukrainian far-right and smeared opponents as pro-Russia.
“Major Ukrainian media outlets financed by the US and other Western governments, such as Ukrainska Pravda & Detector Media, propagated the war to the last Ukrainian, glorified & whitewashed neo-Nazi-led Azov, the OUN, and the UPA, & smeared anyone who opposed this as Russian agents paid by Kremlin,” Katchanovski wrote on X.
The New York Times reported that several humanitarian organizations in Ukraine have had to shut down due to the Trump administration’s foreign aid pause. US officials at the US Embassy in Ukraine are asking for exemptions for humanitarian operations in the country, but so far, the only known exemptions are for military aid to Israel and Egypt under the State Department’s Foreign Military Financing program.
The vast majority of US military aid to Ukraine is provided by the Pentagon, and that does not appear to be affected by the State Department’s pause. “I am focused on military aid; it has not been stopped, thank God,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
Before leaving office, President Biden approved a huge amount of military aid for Ukraine, and there’s no sign those shipments have been frozen.
I don’t feel sorry for propaganda outlets faltering. Zelensky consolidated all into state prop, no political rivals or independents.
I am concerned about humanitarian aid.
Yes. The only aid that should ever leave this country should be humanitarian. Food, clothing and medicine.
The only aid that should ever leave this country is whatever individuals freely choose to send, to whomever and for whatever purposes they damn well please.
I don't live in Utopia. And as long as taxes are collected and there is foreign aid, I stand by what I said.
that is simply untrue
It is true.
Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, passed in March 2022, provides for up to eight years in prison (or two in “correctional labor”) for journalists who engage in reporting that the regime considers “justification, recognition as legitimate, denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, glorification of its participants.”
In 2023, additional legislation was passed that expanded the authority of the regime’s broadcasting regulator to “fine news media outlets, revoke their licenses, temporarily block certain online outlets without a court order and request that social media platforms and search giants like Google remove content” that violates the aforementioned law.
According to a 2023 US State Department report, the regime “banned, blocked, or sanctioned media outlets and individual journalists deemed a threat to national security or who expressed positions authorities believed undermined the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. “
Sorry, I didn’t see your comment before replying from notifications.
What a joke.
Does that mean that we have to say goodbye to the pro-war pests hovering around this place!?
Only for 91 days . . .
LOL
Fortunately Strana.ua is still up and running non-fascist news.. It has been a source of independent news since before the nazi coup and attempted genocide in the Donbas.. It is surprising that it has yet to be shut down.. In 2014, 15 independent journalists were blown up by car bombs, thrown out of high-rise windows, etc, so the Azov and Right Sector have been operating their scams with the support of the UA political mafia..
MUH GENOCIDE
REEEEEEEEEEE
Donations would not be necessary…. Zel boy can tap into his Swiss accounts…!
Crisis
ukrainska pravda
kyiv independent
economichna pravda
kyiv post
unian
All are free and independent news sources ( https://guides.loc.gov/ukraine-economy/news )
“Free and independent” as long as they toe the regime’s line. Otherwise, not so much.
How
Why are you playing dumb?
Zelenskyy has consolidated Ukraine's TV outlets and dissolved rival political parties
https://www.npr.org/2022/07…
Zelensky nationalizes TV news and restricts opposition parties
On Saturday and Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invoked his emergency powers under martial law to suppress several opposition political parties and implement a "unified information policy."
In an address to the nation delivered Sunday, he announced a temporary ban on "any activity" by 11 political parties.
The ban includes the Opposition Platform – For Life party, which holds 43 seats in Ukraine's national parliament and is the largest opposition party.
Zelensky's information policy involves "combining all national TV channels, the program content of which consists mainly of information and/or information-analytical programs, [into] a single information platform of strategic communication" to be called "United News."
Reuters notes that, until Saturday, privately owned Ukrainian media outlets "continued to operate" independently.
Zelensky said the measure was necessary to combat Russian misinformation and "tell the truth about the war."
https://theweek.com/russo-u…
many of them are funded by the US government.
Around 90% is my understanding. Of course they're all owned by the oligarchs, so much of that money will end up back in New York banks.
Provide a paper trail of where all the money went that Joe Biden sent to Ukraine. Every single penny.
All I see is Joe Biden funding the whole Ukraine government. Also trying to hide his corruption.