WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has inflated the worth of weapons shipped to Ukraine from US stockpiles by at the very least $3 billion over the past 12 months, defense officials confirmed Thursday.
It is a mistake that two Republican MPs say has caused Kiev to lose critically needed weapons because the nation prepares for an expected push to drive Russian troops out of occupied Ukrainian territory.
“These funds could have been used for extra supplies and weapons for the upcoming counter-offensive, relatively than rationing funds for the rest of the fiscal 12 months,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman, Representative Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said in a press release.
While the Department of Defense discovered the accounting error earlier this 12 months, officials didn’t inform Congress of the error until Thursday, Rogers and McCaul said.
“The disclosure of a three-billion-dollar accounting error discovered two months ago and only made available to Congress today is incredibly problematic to say the least,” they said.
![Armament goods, armored recovery vehicles, tanks for Ukraine.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/20230514_zna_d20_897.jpg?w=1024)
An accounting error occurred when military personnel tabulated the worth of used equipment shipped to Ukraine as if it had been purchased latest, relatively than at amortized price, according to U.S. officials accustomed to the matter.
On Thursday night, it was unclear what specific weapons were inadvertently discounted.
Now lawmakers want President Biden to urgently send Ukraine additional weapons, together with $3 billion unspent, to help Kiev win the war against Moscow nearly 15 months after Russian forces invaded.
“The Biden administration needs to make up for this precious lost time by using these funds to provide Ukraine [dual-purpose improved conventional munition] AND [Army tactical missile systems] they need to drive the counter-offensive and win the war,” Rogers and McCaul said.
Although america has sent Ukraine at the very least 35 military aid packages since Russia invaded the country on February 24, 2021, the continuing fight requires much more weapons as experts say the conflict tilts in Ukraine’s favour.
US officials pressed Congress this week to proceed to support Ukraine. With Russian President Vladimir Putin facing an arms shortage and only two countries — Iran and North Korea — supplying limited arms to Moscow, witnesses to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Tuesday there was no time to withdraw aid.
“The US has very limited ability to directly shape the trajectory of US-Russian relations, so crucial way to shape that trajectory is to allow Ukraine to defeat Russia,” former ambassador to Russia John Sullivan told MPs. “Russia gaining in Ukraine is probably going to be emboldened.”
![Joe Biden](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/1491237065-1.jpg?w=1024)
But Ukraine’s success, he said, could be a victory not just for Kiev but additionally for US national security.
“Russia’s military defeat, in contrast, may very well be the type of seismic event that’s required to catalyze the bottom-up pressure that will probably be needed to put Russia on a special path,” he said. “Ukraine’s victory raises the prospect, if only barely, that Putin may very well be faraway from office, creating a gap for political change.”
A further $3 billion in arms for Ukraine could be one in all the biggest single military aid packages Washington has sent to Kiev.
While it’s unclear what the US would offer with these funds, its latest $1.2 billion military aid package included air defense systems; ammunition for anti-drone systems; 155 mm artillery shells; satellite image services; and “support for training, maintenance and support activities”, according to the Pentagon.