US Cuts Aid to Ukraine

The US House Committee on Appropriations has reduced financial aid to Yushchenko’s government almost twofold, by $26.3 million, compared to the amount proposed by the Bush Administration. According to the committee’s secretariat, the reduction was motivated by the overall need to curb spending. On February 14 President Bush submitted drafts documents on next year’s additional appropriations totaling $81.9 billion. According to the document on foreign aid expenditures, the White House requested an additional “60 million dollars from the budget to support and consolidate historical gains recently achieved in the course of the democratic elections in Ukraine.” The House Committee on Appropriations decreased the requested sum nearly by half. Despite the reduction, the bill stresses that the “committee hails the democratic initiative of the Ukrainian people and is allocating funds for projects that will quickly demonstrate support for Yushchenko’s government and will cover expenses connected to the next parliamentary elections.”