How Ukraine Must Change If It Wants to Win
AtlanticDec 30, 2023
Pentagon Report: $1B in Ukraine Military Aid at 'Risk of Theft'
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The Facts
The US Department of Defense (DoD) reported Thursday that a little over $1B worth of weapons sent to Ukraine are "delinquent," citing "an inability to maintain complete accountability." This means that future aid shipments to Kyiv will "be difficult as the inventory continues to change," according to the report. Shipments have included equipment ranging from anti-tank, surface-to-air missiles, drones, medium-range missiles, and night vision devices.
US officials have reportedly intimated that the Biden administration was willing to lose track of some weapons so long as others made it to the right end users. Republicans are still blocking a White House-proposed $106B military aid package for both Israel and Ukraine; Washington has sent around $44.2B to Ukraine since the war began.
The Spin
Anti-Russia narrative
While it's true that Russia has been resilient in the face of global sanctions, the West has still been able to freeze hundreds of billions of dollars worth of assets, a percentage of which will go to Kyiv. The latest of these valuable assets is the Russian diamond trade, which totals $4.4B globally and $1.6B in the EU. Once Europe acquires these assets, it will be able to offer Ukraine the funding it needs to arm new waves of conscripts and push Moscow back.
Pro-Russia narrative
Zelenkyy's own advisors are now against both lowering the age of conscription and continuing the war more generally. As the world has known for a while now, Western powers have blocked Kyiv from achieving peace since their purposely failed Minsk agreements a decade ago through the failed peace negotiations in Istanbul at the start of this war. Now that Ukraine is being called out even by the Pentagon for misappropriation of military assets, momentum is increasingly on the Kremlin's side.