WASHINGTON — Shortcomings in required oversight by U.S. officials mean the U.S. cannot trace more than $1 billion in weapons and military equipment delivered to Ukraine to fight invading Russian forces, according to a Pentagon audit released Thursday.
The findings mean that 59% of the $1.7 billion in defense equipment the US delivered to Ukraine that was mandated to guard against misuse or theft remained “delinquent,” the report from the inspector general’s office said. general of the Defense Department, the Pentagon watchdog, said.
While Biden administration officials emphasized Thursday that there was no evidence the weapons had been stolen, the audit undermines two years of lavish assurances from the administration that rigorous oversight would prevent U.S. military aid to Ukraine from being misused. This is despite the country’s long-standing reputation for corruption.
“There remains no credible evidence of illegal diversion of US-supplied advanced conventional weapons from Ukraine,” Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters. Ryder added: “The fact is that we have seen the Ukrainians use these capabilities on the battlefield. We see that they use them effectively.”
President Joe Biden is already struggling to get congressional approval for more U.S. military and financial aid to Ukrainian government forces, which are struggling to push out Russian troops who pushed deeper into the country in February 2022. The audit findings will likely level the playing field for Biden. more difficult.
Republican opposition in the House of Representatives has for months blocked Biden’s request to Congress for an additional $105 billion for Ukraine, Israel and other national security targets. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that there is no more money for additional military aid packages to Ukraine.
The US has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, including major systems such as air defenses. End-use monitoring was required for equipment that contained sensitive technology and was smaller in size, making it more vulnerable to arms trafficking.
The Pentagon inspector general’s report said the Defense Department had failed to maintain an accurate serial number inventory of those defense items for Ukraine as required.
Reasons for the lack of monitoring included limited staffing; the fact that the procedures for conducting end-use monitoring in a war zone were only introduced in December 2022; restrictions on the movement of monitors within Ukraine; and a lack of internal controls over inventory, the report said.
Although the U.S. has improved oversight since the first year of the war, “significant personnel constraints and accountability challenges remain,” the auditors said; a full accounting of equipment was impossible as long as these shortages persisted, they said.
Kirby said government officials “have been interested for months in improving accountability for the end-use of materials provided to Ukraine.”
The audit did not attempt to determine whether aid had been diverted. It noted that the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General now has people stationed in Ukraine, and that investigators are still investigating allegations of criminal abuse of security assistance.
Defense Department officials told auditors they expected better oversight systems to be in place this year and next.
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Pentagon reporters Lolita C. Baldor and Tara Copp contributed.