According to the inspector general of the Pentagon, some of the Western-made weapons and equipment that were given to Ukrainian forces eventually found their way into the hands of smugglers, criminals, and volunteer combatants.
Several American media outlets cited the US Department of Defense (DoD) report titled “Evaluation of the DoD’s Accountability of Equipment Provided to Ukraine” on Thursday.
The outlets claimed that the Pentagon official had given several instances of Western-supplied equipment getting into the wrong hands in a section of the report that had been heavily redacted.
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A volunteer battalion was infiltrated by an organized crime gang last June, which was allegedly under the control of an “unspecified Russian official.” They stole a number of weapons, including a machine gun and a grenade launcher, as well as more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
As reported by the Military, “the group’s perceived intent was to conduct destabilizing activities.”
According to the report, a group of Ukrainian criminals stole $17,000 worth of bulletproof vests given to Kyiv by its allies in the same month while posing as aid workers.
A theft involving 60 rifles and nearly 1,000 rounds of ammunition by volunteer battalion members in August 2022 was also mentioned, “probably for sale on the black market.”
The equipment was allegedly recovered from each of the aforementioned plots after they were all discovered by Ukrainian security forces.
However, the report also acknowledged that despite being required to do so by law under the Arms Export Control Act, the US has had difficulty keeping track of the weapons it sent to Kyiv.
According to the report, American military forces did not keep track of the final destinations of a significant amount of the military hardware that was sent to Ukraine.
The US Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) in Kyiv “was unable to conduct necessary [end-use monitoring] of military equipment that the United States provided to Ukraine in FY 2022,” according to the report.
The inability of DoD personnel to go to locations where equipment provided to Ukraine was being used or stored, it continued, “significantly hampered ODC-Kyiv’s ability to execute” the monitoring.
Howitzers, grenade launchers, Stinger and Javelin missiles, as well as millions of rounds of small-arms ammunition, have all been shipped by the US in numerous massive shipments to Ukraine.
National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), recently created Phoenix Ghost drones, and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) were also among the delivered items.
Russia has repeatedly warned about the risks of arming Kyiv with Western weapons as it vehemently opposes this.
In May, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, issued a warning that Western-supplied weapons and ammunition were being smuggled out of Ukraine and sold on the black market.
Due to the distribution of weapons and ammunition to unsavory individuals around the world, she issued a dire warning: “[T]errorist and criminal activity could reach unprecedented scale.”
In this regard, Vladimir Putin of Russia accuses the West of fanning the “flames of war” by arming Ukraine in order for it to wage a proxy conflict with Russia.
Putin claimed that the Western-supplied weapons and ammunition were exploding in Ukraine.
