(UnitedVoice.com) – The US has sent billions of dollars worth of aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022. The Ukrainian government has repeatedly asked for more. A new Pentagon report shines a light on how much equipment is being lost or destroyed in the conflict, and it might have been better to stay in the dark.
According to a Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report, more than $62 million worth of enhanced end-use monitoring (EEUM), like night-vision weapons, was destroyed or lost as of November 26, 2023. The Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC)–Ukraine has not followed the rules set out by the US government’s Security Assistance Management Manual and filed complete or timely loss reports. The time from the defense article loss to the required report is often more than 300 days, or about 10 times longer than the reporting requirement deadline.
Not only has tens of millions of dollars worth of equipment been destroyed or lost, but the Ukrainian government isn’t even bothering to submit its accountings promptly. The report stated that the failure of Ukraine to report the EEUM loss in a “timely and complete” manner is impeding the Defense Department’s “understanding of any potential violations on EEUM‑designated defense articles.” Further, it means there’s a risk of the agency losing “accountability over EEUM-designated defense articles” given to the Eastern European country.
This isn’t the first time US officials have noted problems with the way Ukraine is reporting the loss of its weapons. In January, the OIG found Pentagon and diplomatic officials had not properly tracked over $1 billion in weapons aid. That represented approximately 59% of the $1.7 billion in assistance they’d designated for end-use tracking.
To put the latest report into perspective. Ukraine has lost enough weapons to cover the cost of the $62.2 billion in discretionary funding President Joe Biden asked Congress to allocate to the Department of Homeland Security in the fiscal 2025 budget to keep the US safe from harm. Remember when Republicans demanded the Biden administration protect America first?
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