Most of the money the US Congress has designated for aiding the government in Kiev has actually gone to the military-industrial complex, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee admitted during an oversight hearing on Wednesday.
\u201cOf the $113 billion appropriated, across four supplementals, approximately 60% is going to American troops, American workers, and on modernizing American stockpiles,\u201d said Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican. \u201cIn fact, only 20% of the funding is going directly to the Ukrainian government, in the form of direct budgetary assistance.\u201d
McCaul is a staunch supporter of arming Ukraine, and insisted that his oversight of the aid is not intended \u201cto undermine or question the importance of support\u201d for Kiev, but to let American taxpayers know how their money was being spent.
The witnesses at Wednesday\u2019s hearing on \u201coversight, transparency, and accountability of Ukraine assistance\u201d included the acting or permanent inspectors-general at the Pentagon, the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The trio was featured in a Wall Street Journal report last month about American auditors going into Ukraine to ensure the weapons, equipment and cash are not \u201cdiverted\u201d for unintended use. They told McCaul on Wednesday that, so far, there haven\u2019t been any \u201csubstantiated\u201d instances of diverting US aid.
\u201cEvery dollar counts,\u201d said McCaul, arguing the oversight would promote the efficiency and effectiveness of Ukraine funding, in service of US interests. He also noted that the multinational consulting company Deloitte is working with the Ukrainian government to verify the expenditure of US cash sent to prop up Kiev\u2019s state budget.
\u201cI don\u2019t think the US has ever been engaged in anything quite like this,\u201d McCaul said later in the hearing, referring to the \u201cpipeline\u201d of NATO weapons headed to Ukraine through Poland.
Moscow has repeatedly warned the West that supplying Ukraine with weapons and equipment only prolongs the war and raises the risk of direct confrontation between Russia and NATO. The US and its allies insist that sending over $100 billion worth of weapons to Kiev doesn\u2019t make them a party to the conflict, even as many public officials described it as a proxy war that Russia \u201cmust lose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n