US failed to track $1bn in arms shipments to Ukraine, watchdog says

The US failed to track around $1bn in military aid to Ukraine for the war against Russia, an internal government watchdog has said.

The aid included advanced US weaponry, the tracking of which fell short of the Department of Defence’s standards regarding sensitive technology or weapons that may be misused or diverted, a 92-page report published by the department’s inspector general revealed.

The accounting for US aid has improved since Russia first invaded in February 2022, but as of June 2023, the tracking of more than half of the Javelins, Stinger missiles, night-vision equipment, and other items sent to Ukraine for which enhanced end-use monitoring standards were required “remained delinquent,” according to Inspector General Robert Storch.

The total value of the equipment amounts to an estimated $1.7bn, the report released on Thursday states. It doesn’t claim that any of the equipment was misused.

“It was beyond the scope of our evaluation to determine whether there has been diversion of such assistance,” the report says.

Ukrainian civilians attend their final military training after a five-day course near Kyiv, Ukraine, 12 January 2024

Biden administration officials have noted that the report is based on more than six months old data, ABC News reported. Officials also argued that extensive monitoring is often difficult to adhere to during a raging conflict.

Mr Storch told Congress in March last year that the enhanced end-use monitoring was “vitally important to ensure that the lethal and non-lethal tools the US supplies to its partners are accounted for appropriately and being used for their intended purpose”.

Ukrainian civilians attend their final military training after a five-day course near Kyiv, Ukraine,