Pentagon watchdog says $1B in military aid for Ukraine improperly tracked

More than $1 billion worth of U.S. missiles, drones and other weapons and equipment sent to Ukraine have not been properly tracked by officials, according to a Pentagon report released Thursday.

Of a total of $1.69 billion worth of items that require additional layers of tracking and monitoring thanks to their sensitive military technology, a little more than $1 billion — or nearly 60 percent — are not fully accounted for, the report found.

The Defense Department’s inspector general did not say if any such weapons had been misused or diverted after being shipped to Ukraine because “it was beyond the scope of our evaluation to determine whether there has been diversion of such assistance.” The watchdog released a full version of the report to Congress on Wednesday and a redacted version to the public a day later.

Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder later told reporters on Thursday there is “no credible evidence of illicit diversion of U.S.-provided advanced conventional weapons from Ukraine.” 

He also blamed Russian disinformation for fanning concerns that such untracked weapons could be stolen or smuggled. 

“We observe the Ukrainians employing these capabilities on the battlefield, we’re seeing them use them effectively, for all the obvious reasons, and that Russia continues to present a significant threat to Ukraine’s sovereignty,” Ryder said.  

The inspector general’s report and its findings are sure to enter the debate in Congress on whether to approve more military aid for Ukraine, which is nearing the end of its second year of fighting against Russia following Moscow’s widespread invasion.

Lawmakers failed to pass a new Ukraine aid package before the start of the year, a breakdown in support that threatens to derail Kyiv’s economy. Officials warn it could also give Russian forces an upper hand on the battlefield, with Kremlin attacks continuing to hammer cities and energy infrastructure across the country. 

A growing number of lawmakers have resisted approving another tranche of aid for the country, with calls for more oversight of the military assistance. 

The report specifically found that as of early June, some 40,000 weapons were not quickly or fully accounted for by American and European officials. 

The weapons, which by law should have been closely monitored, did not have their required serial number scanned into tracking systems for a host of reasons, including database update delays and personnel limitations.  

While the U.S. military provided handheld barcode scanners to Ukrainian defense personnel for conducting weapons inventories, “because of the hostile environment and the resulting logistical and personnel limitations,” the personnel were unable to conduct all required inventories, the report stated.

The watchdog report emphasized it is important for such equipment to be tracked as an inability to maintain complete accountability “may increase the risk of theft or diversion.”

Even achieving a complete picture of all the defense articles in Ukraine “will be difficult as the inventory continues to change, and accuracy and completeness will likely only become more difficult over time,” the document adds.   

The roughly 40,000 defense items noted in the report are still just a small part of some $50 billion in military equipment that the U.S. has sent Ukraine since 2014, when Russia first annexed the Crimea peninsula.  

Most U.S.-provided weapons — including tanks, drones, missiles, air-defense systems and ammunition — have made their way into the hands of Ukrainian soldiers since Moscow invaded the country in February 2022.