OAN’s Noah Herring
5:21 PM – Tuesday, June 20, 2023
The Pentagon announced Tuesday that an accounting error made last month revealed that it overestimated the value of weapons sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion, more than double the purported true estimate.
Pentagon Spokeswoman Sabrina Singh claimed that military services had counted replacement costs rather than the book value of equipment that was pulled from Pentagon stocks to be sent to Ukraine. According to Singh, there was an error of $3.6 billion in the current fiscal year and $2.6 billion in the 2022 fiscal year.
“In a significant number of cases, services used replacement costs rather than net book value, thereby overestimating the value of the equipment drawn down from US stocks and provided to Ukraine,” Singh said.
The department has also now stated that it has additional money to use to further support Ukraine, which is likely to help Congress pass an additional assistance package before the end of the fiscal year in September.
“It’s just going to go back into the pot of money that we have allocated” for the future Pentagon stock drawdowns,” said Singh.
Based on previous estimates, the U.S. had given more than $40 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion. The new estimate, after knowledge of the alleged accounting mistake, shows less than $34 billion given.
The U.S. had approved “four rounds” of aid to Ukraine, which totaled around $113 billion with a portion of that money going towards military equipment. Congress approved the latest round in December, which totaled around $45 billion for Ukraine and NATO allies.
This comes as members of Congress have consistently pressed Defense Department officials on how closely the U.S. is tracking its aid to Ukraine, in order to ensure that there has been no fraudulent activity regarding the handling of funds.
The Pentagon has responded to these concerns saying it has a “robust program” to track the aid as it crosses the border into Ukraine.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly stated that the U.S. will help Ukraine “as long as it takes” to repel Russian forces. In a private conversation, those from the Biden administration reportedly warned Ukrainian officials that there is a limit to patience from a divided Congress and the American public, with no clear end to the war.
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