The “recaptured” funds will go towards future weapons packages for Kiev, officers stated
The US navy has stated it overestimated the worth of arms transferred to Ukraine by greater than $6 billion during the last two years, greater than doubling the Pentagon’s unique evaluation first disclosed in earlier this 12 months.
Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh revised the determine throughout a Tuesday press convention, telling reporters that US help was overvalued by $6.2 billion, together with $2.6 billion final 12 months and one other $3.6 billion in 2023.
“In a major variety of circumstances, companies used substitute prices fairly than internet ebook worth, thereby overestimating the worth of the gear drawn down from US shares and offered to Ukraine,” she stated.
Singh added that the error didn’t have any significant impression on help to Kiev, noting that it could as a substitute permit Washington to produce much more help on high of the $40 billion already approved since Russia despatched troops into its neighboring state final 12 months.
Requested whether or not the newly ‘discovered’ $6.2 billion had already been allotted for future help, the spokeswoman stated the funds would “return into the pot of cash,” and that such selections can be made earlier than the following arms package deal is authorised.
White Home Nationwide Safety Advisor Jake Sullivan beforehand argued the accounting error didn’t recommend a scarcity of oversight for US help to Ukraine, insisting “this cash is being spent successfully and appropriately.”
Some lawmakers have voiced skepticism, nonetheless, with Republican Senator Marco Rubio demanding a complete assessment of the help final week. A number of different GOP members have echoed requires an audit, with Consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene arguing that Americans “don’t know the place all this cash goes.”
Whereas US officers insist that help is being correctly monitored, an unnamed intelligence supply described main oversight issues in feedback to CNN final 12 months, saying Western weapons fall right into a “huge black gap,” and that Washington has “nearly zero” sense of the place arms find yourself in Ukraine.
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