The Pentagon doesn’t know whether $62 million in missing U.S. weapons aid to Ukraine has been lost or destroyed, according to a new report released on Wednesday.
The $62 million in weapons were designated for end-use monitoring (EEUM), but problems in reporting and tracking between U.S. and Ukrainian forces left an information gap as to what equipment may have been destroyed, lost or diverted through November 2023, according to a Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General report (OIG) report. The Pentagon has had consistent problems tracking U.S. aid to Ukraine since the country’s war with Russia began in 2022.
“The absence of timely and complete EEUM loss reporting, along with the lack of thorough analysis of the loss reports, impedes the DoD’s understanding of any potential violations on EEUM‑designated defense articles,” the inspector general report reads. “This increases the risk that the DoD could lose accountability over EEUM‑designated defense articles provided to Ukraine.”
The U.S. European Command’s (USEUCOM) Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) hadn’t consistently obtained routine or thorough loss reports from Ukrainian forces, despite in-place protocols and standards, according to the inspector general report. On average, the time it took from the initial loss of a “defense” item to the time of the final loss report was 301 days, when requirements call for a roughly 30-day report.
Additionally, the U.S. forces tasked with tracking did not conduct a proper analysis of existing loss reports for the risk of weapons being captured by Russian forces, according to the report. The report was unable to ascertain whether U.S. weapons assistance had been diverted, noting that the OIG “continues to investigate allegations of criminal conduct regarding U.S. Security assistance to Ukraine.”
The Pentagon’s inspector general has identified previous problems with keeping track of U.S.-provided weapons to Ukraine. An investigation, the results of which were released in January, found that U.S. defense and diplomatic officials had improperly tracked more than $1 billion in weapons aid, representing roughly 69% of the $1.6 billion in assistance that had been designated for end-use tracking.
“Achieving a complete picture of EEUM-designated defense articles in Ukraine will be difficult as the inventory continues to change, and accuracy and completeness will likely only become more difficult over time,” the January report reads.
The U.S. has sent more than $70 billion worth of weapons assistance to Ukraine since the country’s war with Russia broke out in 2022. Ukraine has looked to its Western allies to provide weapons as its own defense industrial base is not as advanced or large as Russia’s.
Over $1 billion of the weapons and military aid that the Biden administration has sent to Ukraine could be underperforming and taken off the front lines of the war, including tanks, drones, rocket systems and bombs, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Featured Image Credit: DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jack Sanders
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