Some of the Western-provided weapons and equipment intended for Ukrainian troops was stolen by arms traffickers, criminals, and volunteer fighters before being recovered last year, a US military news outlet that obtained a Pentagon report has claimed.
The outlet singled out the Pentagon inspector general (IG) report, which was gained through a Freedom of Information Act request and which examined the period between February 2022 and September 2022.
The report, titled “DoD [US Department of Defense]’s Accountability of Equipment Provided to Ukraine,” showed that American military forces had failed to monitor where much of the military equipment being sent into Ukraine was ending up, suggesting that some gear had fallen into the hands of criminal groups.
According to the document, the US Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) in Kiev “was unable to conduct required [end-use monitoring] of military equipment that the United States provided to Ukraine in FY 2022.”
The report added that “the inability of DoD personnel to visit areas where equipment provided to Ukraine was being used or stored significantly hampered ODC-Kiev’s ability to execute” the monitoring.
The document argued that after the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the Pentagon’s ability to track and monitor all of the US military equipment delivered to Kiev, as required by law under the Arms Export Control Act, faced “challenges” due to the limited American presence in Ukraine.
The report does not specify whether the stolen weapons and equipment were American, some examples are outlined in a highly redacted section of the document that deals with Ukrainian tracking of US-provided arms, according to the US media outlet.
Last year, the US delivered a wide array of weapons to Ukraine, including Stinger and Javelin missiles, howitzers, grenade launchers, as well as millions of rounds of small-arms ammunition. In addition, more advanced systems included National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), newly developed Phoenix Ghost drones and High Mobility rtillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).