Pentagon Says It Made “Accounting Error” Clearing Another $6 Billion In Aid For Ukraine

How could this possibly happen?

Due to an accounting error, the value of weapons supplied to Ukraine by the United States was overstated by $6.2 billion over the past two years, according to AP.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said that a detailed review of the accounting error found that replacement costs were recorded for the equipment, not the actual book value of items pulled from Pentagon stocks and sent to Ukraine, adding that final calculations reveal a $3.6 billion error in the current fiscal year, and $2.6 billion in the 2022 FY, which ended last Sept. 30.

And of course, AP provides the ‘silver lining’;

As a result, the department now has additional money in its coffers to use to support Ukraine as it pursues its counteroffensive against Russia. And it come as the fiscal year is wrapping up and congressional funding was beginning to dwindle.

“It’s just going to go back into the pot of money that we have allocated” for the future Pentagon stock drawdowns, according to Sigh.

pic.twitter.com/zmElwYwKq0

— greg (@greg16676935420) June 20, 2023

The United States has approved four rounds of aid to Ukraine totaling around $113 billion – some of which went towards replenishing US military equipment used on the front lines. In December, Congress approved the latest round of funding, totaling around $45 billion for Ukraine and NATO allies.

The ‘extra’ $6.2 billion ‘found’ for Ukraine comes as the country begins its counteroffensive against Russia in an attempt to reclaim territory held by the Kremlin’s forces since February 2022. Thus far, ‘the counteroffensive has come up against heavily mined terrain and reinforced defensive fortifications,’ according to Ukraine’s commander of the armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

US officials still haven’t provided exact totals for the amount of money that remains for Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative drawdowns, which provides longer-term funding for the purchase of weapons, including large air defense systems.