Echoes of Afghanistan? U.S. military lacks oversight in Ukraine and is losing weapons, watchdog says

Western nation weapons sent to Ukraine have been intercepted by Russians, criminal gangs and other bad actors, similar to the lack of oversight of U.S. weaponry in Afghanistan, according to multiple Defense Department inspector general reports.

Ukraine's security service last year disrupted at least some weapon-steal plots including one by a group of arms traffickers, another by Ukrainian criminals who posed as members of a humanitarian aid organization and yet another by a criminal group run by an unnamed Russian official, the report states.

The partially redacted report does not specify whether the stolen weapons were given to Ukraine by the U.S.

However it states the Ukrainian government was "unable to conduct required EUM (End-Use Monitoring] of military equipment the U.S. provided to Ukraine" in fiscal 2022, which essentially means the Kiev could verify the equipment ever got into the hands of its military.

The report, which was made public last week but is dated Oct. 6, 2022, states that the Defense Department's "ability to monitor equipment provided to Ukraine was hampered because of the limited number of U.S. personnel allowed in the country and movement restrictions placed on those personnel." 

After the report was written but before it was made public, the Pentagon inspector general said in April that nearly 100 people are engaged in Ukraine oversight, with 20 of them deployed in the region.

In one example cited in the report, members of an organized crime group run by a Russian official joined a volunteer fighting battalion using foraged identity documents with the likely intent of conducting "destabilizing activities."

In another example, a Ukrainian criminal group posed as a humanitarian aid organization distributing bulletproof vests. Rather than giving the vests out, however, the group sold them, and a member was found with a $17,000 cache of bulletproof vests. 

Multiple inspector general reports since Russia's invasion have demonstrated a lack of oversight over military assistance sent to Ukraine.

For example, a report released late last month found that the Defense Department "is not conducting inventories" of all Enhanced End-Use Monitoring products in Poland before they are given to Ukraine. These enhanced items may include various missiles and night vision devices. 

Another report released in early June found that the Defense Department "did not have accountability controls sufficient enough to provide reasonable assurance that its inventory of defense items transferred" to Ukraine was "accurate or complete." 

The situation appears similar to the U.S. not being able to track and account for military equipment in Afghanistan, highlighted by when the weapons got into the wrong hands after the United States' chaotic withdrawal in August 2021 as the Taliban took control. 

The U.S. left more than $7 billion worth of equipment in Afghanistan, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko said in a report released in February.

In thereport, Sopko also raised the alarm about the need to monitor equipment being sent to Ukraine, stating that the "risk that some equipment ends up on the black market or in the wrong hands is likely unavoidable."

The latest report released on Ukraine comes as the Biden administration on Wednesday announced an additional $1.3 billion in aid to Ukraine.

The United States has allocated more than $42.6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia's invasion, significantly more money than that given by all European Union nations. This U.S. assistance includes thousands of military vehicles and more than 300 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades, as well as millions of larger ammunition rounds.

Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.