Amid strong congressional opposition to sending more aid to Ukraine, the US Department of Defense, also known as the Pentagon, has dropped a bombshell revelation confirming the disappearance of weapons worth over a billion dollars sent to Kyiv.
The department announced that approximately $1billion worth of aid has completely vanished, with no proper tracking in recent days.
As Kyiv seeks more assistance to bolster its defense against Russian forces, the US announcement disclosed that more than a billion dollars out of a total of 1.69 billion dollars in aid sent by the United States to Ukraine has gone missing.
This includes 39,139 high-value weapons, including javelins, Stinger missiles, and night vision devices, among the missing items.
The fate of these weapons remains unknown, but their disappearance has reignited concerns about corruption within Ukrainian security agencies.
Last October, a secret US strategic document revealed that officials in President Joe Biden’s administration were much more concerned about corruption in Ukraine, openly acknowledging the issue.
The document, as reported by Politico, warned that corruption could lead Western allies to abandon Ukraine in its war with Russia.
It emphasized that Kyiv cannot afford to postpone efforts to combat this corruption, as high-level corruption could erode the trust of the Ukrainian people and foreign leaders in the Kyiv government during a time of war.
The document also discussed the challenge facing the Biden administration from opponents of US aid to Kyiv, including Republican lawmakers attempting to block it entirely, implying that the recent revelation may align with those desires.
It’s worth noting that the weapons highlighted in the recent US announcement represent only a small portion of the military equipment that the US has sent to Ukraine, totaling $50 billion since Russia annexed Crimea and parts of the Donbas region in 2014.
Several Republican lawmakers have objected to military and economic aid to Ukraine, and US officials are applying pressure on Kyiv on this matter.
Months ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed several top defense officials in his campaign against corruption. However, this recent incident may reopen investigations, according to analysts.
