Once the world’s leading humanitarian donor, the United States has now cut 90% of its foreign assistance. On February 27, the U.S. unilaterally terminated 10,000 contracts and grants, including lifesaving programmes that had previously received waivers.
The U.S. decision has created a humanitarian funding crisis with devastating consequences around the world. There are currently around 60 armed conflicts worldwide, with more than 300 million people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, including food assistance, decent shelter and clean drinking water, critical medical assistance and the demining of villages and fields. These lifesaving programmes must continue, because for millions they are the difference between survival and despair – without them people will go hungry, be left without the treatment they need, and lose the chance to rebuild their lives.
Estonian Refugee Council has received a termination notice for two grants, impacting our response in Ukraine and Armenia.
In Ukraine, ERC is one of the largest humanitarian cash assistance providers in frontline and other hard-to-reach areas. With the U.S. funding in 2025–2026, ERC was going to reach 28,000 people in Ukraine helping to cover basic needs such as food, shelter, medicine, and heating in the winter season. Additionally, ERC was set to help restore livelihoods of conflict-affected women in both Ukraine and Armenia through entrepreneurship programmes.
We continue providing assistance to vulnerable people in conflict-affected areas of Ukraine, including transit centres for evacuees, with the support of other donors such as the European Union, United Nations, Estonian government and public donations. Despite the extensive need for assistance, the cut in funding has forced us to scale down our operations. This severely impacts the communities whose lives have been uprooted by the war and whose survival and well-being depends on humanitarian assistance. Vulnerable families will struggle even more to meet their basic needs, and opportunities for rebuilding shattered livelihoods will be lost.
Today, private and corporate donor support is essential for our work, helping us continue to provide immediate relief to people who urgently need it. Through the campaign “Three years too many”, ERC is collecting donations to provide essential assistance to people in Ukraine. Your donation can save lives.
However, long-term and systematic humanitarian assistance cannot rely solely on the generosity of people. We call on the European Union, traditional donor governments as well as the Estonian government to increase their funding for bridging the critical gap in humanitarian aid.
