Pentagon finds another $2 bln of accounting errors for Ukraine aid
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The Foreign Assistance Act's broad definition of value, as well as the lack of explicit valuation instructions for the Presidential Drawdown Authority, have resulted in disparities in military aid reporting.
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Ukrainian troops ride toward frontline positions near Vuhledar in Donetsk in Ukraine on May 1, 2023. (AP)
The Pentagon discovered $2 billion in new inaccuracies in its estimates for ammunition, missiles, and other equipment transferred to Ukraine, bringing the total amount of wrongly assessed goods to $8.2 billion, according to a US government assessment released on Thursday.
The US Department of Defense has struggled to appropriately value aid transferred to Ukraine owing to ambiguous accounting rules, according to a recent Government Accountability Office assessment.
In 2023, the Pentagon stated its officials utilized "replacement value" rather than "depreciated value" to calculate the billions of dollars in material transferred to Ukraine. The $6.2 billion miscalculation allowed billions more to be paid to Kiev.
The Pentagon informed the GAO that further overstatements totaling $2 billion had been discovered since then. As a consequence, an additional $2 billion in armaments can be supplied to Ukraine to supplement the amount of aid approved by the Biden administration.
According to the GAO, the Foreign Assistance Act's broad definition of value, as well as the lack of explicit valuation instructions for the Presidential Drawdown Authority, have resulted in disparities in military aid reporting.
In one case detailed in the GAO report, ten vehicles were evaluated at $7,050,000 although supporting evidence indicated they should have been rated at zero, their net book value.
The GAO has recommended that Congress define the definition of value for defense goods under the Presidential Drawdown Authority.
Furthermore, the GAO has made 7 suggestions to the Defense Department, pushing it to revise its guidance to include a PDA-specific valuation section and provide component-specific valuation protocols. The agency stated that it has agreed with all suggestions and has proposed solutions to resolve these shortcomings.
In a similar context, on Friday, the EU sent €1.5 billion to Ukraine, marking the first transfer under a new scheme utilizing Russia's frozen assets, which is estimated at €210 billion across the bloc, Euro News reports.
Ninety percent of this financial aid will fund weapons, ammunition, and air defense systems for Ukraine, while the remaining 10% will support reconstruction, particularly of the energy infrastructure damaged by Russian strikes.
The initiative reportedly intends "to prevent a humanitarian crisis and migration surge" due to power grid destruction.
US plans Black Sea logistics centers to speed arms supply to Ukraine
In an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta on Thursday, Russian presidential aide Nikolai Patrushev said that the US is aiming to establish logistics centers in the Black Sea region to expedite arms supplies and deploy long-range weapons to Ukraine.
"In the countries of the Black Sea region, the United States intends to create logistics centers to accelerate the supply of weapons to Ukraine, as well as to deploy modern long-range weapons," Patrushev said.
He also criticized the idea of allowing Western ships unhindered access to ports in the Sea of Azov.
"Given the aggressive nature of Western countries that directly support the Kiev regime in conducting military and terrorist actions against Russia, currently any unhindered passage of their ships to the ports of Azov is out of the question," he told Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
These statements follow a recent joint communiqué signed at a Swiss-hosted Ukraine summit, in which nations called for unhindered access to ports in the Black and Azov Seas to allegedly support global food security.
