An accounting error made by the Department of Defense (DoD) overestimated weapons shipments made to Ukraine by as much as $3 billion, giving the Pentagon an opening to send even more military aid.
“During our regular oversight process of presidential drawdown packages, the Department discovered inconsistencies in equipment valuation for Ukraine,” a statement from Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh read, according to The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story on May 18.
A spending bill passed last December by Congress directed over $44 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine. Most of the shipments included previously used gear, AP News reported.
However, an internal audit performed on the military aid shipments to Ukraine in March found that, in several cases, the replacement cost of equipment had been used by accountants instead of the net book value.
The DoD is known for having poor accounting practices. Last November, it failed an external audit for the fifth time in its history for not being able to account for 61% of its assets, according to The Hill.
An unnamed DoD official told AP News that another internal review of shipments to Ukraine is underway to ascertain their actual cost. If a surplus is confirmed, the Biden administration could avoid having to ask Congress for approval on another military aid package next year.
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was hitting its one-year mark, polls showed that support for sending aid to Ukraine was waning among Americans, as The Dallas Express previously reported.
The issue has affected U.S. politics, especially within the Republican Party. Some lawmakers, like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), oppose further military aid packages to Ukraine; others, like Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), remain in favor.
The delay in reporting the DoD accounting error to lawmakers has spurred considerable criticism against the Pentagon.
“The revelation of a $3 billion accounting error discovered two months ago and only today shared with Congress is extremely problematic, to say the least,” Reps. Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Michael McCaul (R-TX) wrote in a joint statement.
“These funds could have been used for extra supplies and weapons for the upcoming counteroffensive … The Biden Administration must make up for this precious lost time by using these funds to provide Ukraine [with surface-to-surface missile systems] they need to fuel the counteroffensive and win the war,” the statement continued.
Figures compiled by the Council on Foreign Relations reported that as of February 24, more than $75 billion in military, humanitarian, and financial assistance had been sent from the United States to Ukraine.
As of May 9, weapons packages included several air defense systems, 10,000 Javelin anti-armor systems, 20 Mi-17 helicopters, 7,000 Hydra-70 air-to-ground rockets, 109 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, and an array of explosive and surveillance drones.
DoD officials claimed that a “robust program” tracks U.S. military aid to Ukraine and makes sure it goes where intended, according to AP News.
As The Dallas Express previously reported, Kyiv is planning a massive counteroffensive that is expected to launch any day now — if it has not already.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed on May 11 that the operation was delayed due to his country’s allegedly insufficient military resources, according to AP News. More specifically, he claimed that it was possible to move forward but not without a significant human cost that he found “unacceptable.”