UN refugee agency reduces support for Ukrainians fleeing frontline

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations' refugee agency has had to reduce support for newly displaced people in Ukraine as frontline attacks intensify, it said on Friday, blaming the suspension of U.S. aid and broader donor cuts.

Across the world, humanitarian agencies are grappling with the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw foreign aid.

"Some of the programmes that we previously used to implement with the generous support of U.S. funding are on hold," Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR Representative in Ukraine told reporters via a videolink.

They include psycho-social support, which is needed on a huge scale, emergency shelter material and cash assistance, the agency said.

The loss of U.S. aid, which last year, accounted for 40% of UNHCR funding has had the most impact, but other Western donors have also retreated as they prioritise defence spending.

As a result, the agency said its appeal for $3.32 billion to support 8.2 million people in Ukraine was only 25% funded.

"We had to reduce the number of people we are prioritising," Billing said, urging donors to provide funding.

Since January, almost 9,000 people fleeing heavy shelling in Ukraine have passed through UNHCR's transit centres in Pavlohrad and Sumy, where it is providing clothes, hygiene kits, and legal and psycho-social support.

"They have arrived with little or no belongings and deeply traumatised," Billing added.

More than 200,000 people have been evacuated or displaced from frontline areas between August last year and March, according to the agency.

Several regions, including the Kyiv area, and cities of Kharkiv and Pavlohrad have come under attack in recent days, at a critical moment in Russia's war in Ukraine, as Trump strives to achieve his pledge of a rapid peace deal.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Ludwig Burger and Barbara Lewis)