‘Improper reporting’ – ISW dismisses claims Ukraine lost track of U.S. weapons
Reports suggesting that U.S. military aid for Ukraine is not being properly tracked are related to the technological aspects of such reporting and do not indicate misuse by Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its Jan. 11 report.
The Inspector General's Office of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) released a report on Jan. 11 indicating that delays in documenting some aid sent to Ukraine are mainly attributable to the DoD's own constraints. This, however, does not imply misuse of the provided aid, the ISW clarified.
The report mentioned that the DoD's Office of Defense Cooperation–Ukraine (ODC-Ukraine) couldn't complete the required 90-day inventory of defense articles due to staff shortages, the lack of established protocols for a wartime monitoring database until December 2022, and insufficient internal control over data, the ISW said.
The report's findings don't suggest the inventories are missing or unused, noting that Ukrainian forces do supply initial figures to the ODC-Ukraine and efforts are underway to develop a system that effectively employs serial numbers, explained Inspector General Robert Storch.
It was also reported that Ukraine has carried out inventories yet to be logged in the designated database.
The report highlights that while the DoD's rate of unregistered U.S.-supplied defense articles for Ukraine within 90 days remains non-compliant with federal regulations, updated procedures for both DoD and Ukrainian personnel have led to a better rate of documentation from Feb. 10, 2023, to June 2, 2023.
The report clarifies that the potential misdirection of U.S. military assistance to the Ukrainian military is not within its investigative scope, and it provides no evidence of any misuse of U.S. defense assets allocated to Ukraine.
Read also: U.S. State Dept reiterates that it believes all weapons provided to Ukraine were used appropriately
The Inspector General's report from the DoD puts the responsibility for meeting the DoD’s reporting standards on ODC-Ukraine.
The challenges Ukraine faces in meeting these standards seem to stem from personnel and logistical issues, not bad faith.
The report pointed out that Ukrainian personnel have only 10 barcode scanners for recording weapon serial numbers, none of which are deployed at the front lines, leading to difficulties in reporting losses within the mandated 90 days due to serial numbers being lost or becoming unreadable from active usage and combat damage.
The report also observed that Ukraine occasionally delays written reports of losses because of differences in loss classification standards between Ukraine and the DoD.
The report also mentioned that ODC-Ukraine is understaffed in logistics hubs, making it challenging to maintain DoD reporting standards due to these significant personnel restrictions.
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