Global, Land Warfare, Pentagon
US defense secretary Lloyd Austin addresses media at the 11th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base, Germany (DoD)
WASHINGTON — Due to what it described as “valuation errors,” the Pentagon said today it had determined it actually has some $6.2 billion more available for Ukraine-related military aid than previously known.
In May Reuters reported that the Pentagon weeks before realized it had been calculating the cost of security aid via presidential drawdown — weapons taken straight from US stocks and sent to Ukraine — as if the weapons and platforms it was providing were new, rather than used, meaning its figures had been inflated. At the time, the Pentagon said it was off by some $3 billion.
The jump to $6.2 billion accounts for miscalculations in both fiscal years 2022 and 2023, Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters today.
“During the department’s regular oversight of our execution of Presidential Drawdown Authority for Ukraine, we discovered inconsistencies in equipment evaluation for Ukraine,” Singh said. “In a significant number of cases, services used replacement costs rather than net-book value, thereby overestimating the value of the equipment being drawn down from US stocks and provided for Ukraine.”
After discovering the error, the Pentagon comptroller “reissued guidance” on March 31 that clarifies how to evaluate equipment, she added.
The newfound cash will now go back into the presidential drawdown funds — money with which the US can use to continue pulling weapons from its stockpiles to send to Kyiv, rather than the contracting for new ones directly from manufacturers. The US has announced 40 presidential drawdowns so far.
The May revelation raised some congressional concerns that the department is playing loose with money as a way to circumvent needing to formally request more funding for Ukraine aid. Without the funds, it had been calculated that the pot of money for Kyiv would run out later this year, and with some in the GOP-controlled House skeptical of providing more aid, there were real concerns that a new Ukraine supplemental would fail. The new-found money means the White House has more ramp before needing to seek a Ukraine bill.
Between drawdowns and contracts with manufacturers, the US has spent around $40 billion on aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, according to the DoD.
The newfound money comes at a critical time in Ukraine’s fight against Russia, as it tries to kickstart a spring offensive to take back territory, and days after US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin traveled to Brussels to chair a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
“We will continue to provide Ukraine with the urgent capabilities that it needs to meet this moment… as well as what it needs to keep itself secure for the long term from Russian aggression,” Austin said while sitting between Ukraine’s defense minister Oleksiy Reznikov and US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Mark Milley.
