Increased risk! US weapons could be lost en route to Ukraine

US Department of defense (DOD) employees’ failure to follow procedure in keeping track of weapons transfers to Ukraine unnecessarily increases the possibility that U.S. defense equipment could be lost, the Pentagon’s internal watchdog warned in a report released last week, informs ‘Daily Caller’.

The DOD Inspector General could not verify any instances of loss, theft or diversion of the weapons shipments, but found during a November 2022 visit to the Jasionka transfer site in Poland that personnel responsible for tracking equipment transfers couldn’t confirm that the items received matched those the Pentagon meant to send, according to the report.

Lax accounting by Pentagon teams in the U.S. and Poland adds to the risk items en route to Ukraine could disappear and that the Pentagon may accidentally miscalculate future security aid, the report found.

DOD personnel “did not have reasonable assurance that the numbers and types of defense items transferred to the [government of Ukraine] officials via air transport in Jasionka was accurate or complete,” the report found.

DOD personnel, working in 24-hour shifts, did review cargo arrivals and oversee loading into Ukrainian and Polish trucks headed to the front lines. However, the defense team failed to complete the required documentation for three of the five shipments they received, the watchdog found.

One plane carrying thousands of small arms, night vision goggles and cold weather gear arrived without a cargo log, so DOD personnel had to open the crates and try to mark down by hand the quantities received. However, they had no way to tell for sure whether the items represented everything that was supposed to be shipped.

“There is an increased risk that the DoD may be providing more or less equipment than authorized by [the president] and may not be able to verify the quantities of all defense items transferred to” the government of Ukraine, the watchdog warned. That lack of accountability increases the risk that future losses could occur.

The U.S. has provided $40.4 billion in security assistance alone to Ukraine since the beginning of the war in February 2022, according to a fact sheet dated June 9.

… It means that these weapons could appear in most unexpected places, including hands of terrorists, smugglers and other criminals. American weapons also could reach other countries and regions of the world. There is evidence that part of it is simply resold on the way to interested groupings for good money.

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