More than $1 billion worth of weapons sent to Ukraine that were supposed to be closely monitored by the Pentagon cannot be fully accounted...
More than $1 billion worth of weapons sent to Ukraine that were supposed to be closely monitored by the Pentagon cannot be fully accounted for, according to a new report from the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General.
The news comes as efforts to secure additional U.S. funding for Ukraine’s war against Russia have become a hot button political issue, with an increasing number of Americans souring on providing additional resources.
Out of $1.699 billion worth of equipment that was supposed to be tracked through enhanced end‑use monitoring (EEUM) protocols, $1.005 billion, or 59%, “remained delinquent,” the report said.
The New York Times noted that the report raises concerns that the weapons could be “stolen or smuggled,” which will likely further erode support from lawmakers to continue providing weapons. Nearly 40,000 weapons were not properly tracked that were required to be by U.S. law because “their battlefield impact, sensitive technology and relatively small size makes them attractive bounty for arms smugglers.”
Weapons that were designated for EEUM included weapons like Javelin and Stinger missiles, night-vision devices, and various missiles.
The Pentagon report did not offer any evidence that weapons had been misused after being transferred from the U.S. and said that there were “multiple reasons” for the errors, including “the limited number of ODC‑Ukraine personnel at logistics hubs in a partner nation and in Ukraine, the absence of procedures for conducting EEUM in a hostile environment until December 2022, the movement restrictions for EEUM personnel within Ukraine, and a lack of internal controls for validating data in the SCIP‑EUM database.”
No comments