The US has struggled to maintain observe of weapons it despatched to Kiev early within the battle, the paper says
Among the navy tools provided to Ukraine by the US and its allies in the course of the battle with Russia has fallen into the palms of legal teams, volunteer fighters and traffickers, a report by the Pentagon inspector normal has revealed.
CNN and Militray.com reported on the content material of the paper, entitled “Analysis of the DoD’s Accountability of Gear Supplied to Ukraine,” on Thursday, after acquiring the doc through a Freedom of Data Act request. The report, which got here out in October, examined the interval from February 2022, when the preventing between Moscow and Kiev started, to September of that 12 months.
Throughout that point, the Division of Protection skilled “challenges” in monitoring and monitoring the weapons and tools offered to Ukraine, the paper acknowledged.
The US workplace of Protection Cooperation in Kiev “was unable to conduct required [end-use monitoring] of navy tools that america offered to Ukraine in FY 2022,” the report learn, as cited by CNN. In keeping with the inspector normal, the issues stemmed from the “incapability of DoD personnel to go to areas the place tools offered to Ukraine was getting used or saved.”
A extremely redacted part of the report offered a number of examples of Western-supplied {hardware} ending up within the fallacious palms.
Final June, an organized crime group, allegedly overseen by an “unspecified Russian official,” infiltrated a volunteer battalion and stole numerous weapons, together with a grenade launcher and a machine gun, in addition to greater than 1,000 rounds of ammunition. “The perceived intent of the group was to conduct destabilizing actions,” the report learn, as cited by Navy.com.
The identical month, a gaggle of Ukrainian criminals, who had been posing as assist employees, snatched $17,000 value of bulletproof vests offered to Kiev by its allies, the paper mentioned.
It additionally described an incident in August 2022, when volunteer battalion members stole 60 rifles and nearly 1,000 rounds of ammunition, “presumably on the market on the black market.”
The entire above-mentioned plots had been uncovered by the Ukrainian safety providers, with the tools being retrieved, the report claimed.
Moscow, which strongly opposes the availability of Western weapons to Kiev, has many occasions pointed to the hazard of these arms being smuggled out of Ukraine and offered on the black market. In Might, Russia’s International Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned as a consequence of this, “terrorist and legal exercise might attain unprecedented scale” across the globe.
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