{"id":22607,"date":"2024-01-13T04:34:15","date_gmt":"2024-01-13T10:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=22607"},"modified":"2024-01-13T04:34:21","modified_gmt":"2024-01-13T10:34:21","slug":"the-us-failed-to-track-more-than-1-billion-in-military-gear-given-ukraine-pentagon-watchdog-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=22607","title":{"rendered":"The US failed to track more than $1 billion in military gear given Ukraine, Pentagon watchdog says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Shortfalls in required monitoring by American officials mean the U.S. cannot track more than $1 billion in weapons and military equipment provided to Ukraine to fight invading Russian forces<\/a>, according to a Pentagon audit released Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings mean that 59% of $1.7 billion in defense gear that the U.S. has provided Ukraine and was directed to guard against misuse or theft remained \u201cdelinquent,\u201d the report by the Defense Department\u2019s office of the inspector-general, the watchdog body for the Pentagon, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Biden administration officials stressed Thursday that there was no evidence the weapons had been stolen, the audit undermines two years of lavish assurances from the administration that rigorous monitoring would keep U.S. military aid given to Ukraine from being misused<\/a>. That\u2019s despite the country\u2019s longstanding reputation for corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere remains no credible evidence of illicit diversion of U.S.-provided advanced conventional weapons from Ukraine,\u201d Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters. Citing what he said was Russian disinformation to the contrary, Ryder added, \u201cThe fact is, we observed the Ukrainians employing these capabilities on the battlefield. We\u2019re seeing them use them effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Joe Biden<\/a> is already struggling to win congressional approval for more U.S. military and financial aid to Ukrainian government forces, which are struggling to drive out Russian forces that pushed deeper into the country in February 2022. The audit findings are likely to make Biden\u2019s task even harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Republican opposition for months has stalled Biden\u2019s request to Congress for $105 billion more<\/a> for Ukraine, Israel and other national security objectives. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that there was no funding left for additional military aid packages to Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, including big systems such as air defense. The end-use monitoring was required for gear that had sensitive technology and was smaller, making it more vulnerable to arms trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon inspector general\u2019s report said that the Defense Department had failed to maintain an accurate serial-number inventory of those defense articles for Ukraine as required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reasons for the shortfall in monitoring included limited staffing; the fact that procedures for carrying out end-use monitoring in a war zone weren\u2019t put in place until December 2022; restrictions on movement for monitors within Ukraine; and a lack of internal controls on inventory, the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the U.S. had improved monitoring since the first year of the war, \u201csignificant personnel limitations and accountability challenges remain,\u201d auditors said; full accounting of the gear was impossible as long as those shortfalls remained, they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kirby said administration officials \u201chas for many months now been interested in improving accountability over the end use of material that is provided to Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The audit didn\u2019t attempt to determine whether any of the assistance had been diverted. It noted the Defense Department inspector-general\u2019s office now had people stationed in Ukraine, and that its criminal investigators were still looking into allegations of criminal misuse of the security assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defense Department officials told auditors they expected to have systems for improved oversight in place this year and next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

apnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Shortfalls in required monitoring by American officials mean the U.S. cannot track more than $1 billion in weapons and military equipment provided to Ukraine to fight invading Russian forces, according to a Pentagon audit released Thursday. The findings mean that 59% of $1.7 billion in defense gear that the U.S. has provided Ukraine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1153],"tags":[1273,1159,1688],"class_list":["post-22607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military","tag-billion","tag-more","tag-track"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22609,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22607\/revisions\/22609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}