Some Western weapons and equipment sent to the Ukrainian army were stolen by criminal organizations, volunteer servicemen and arms dealers. The missing items were subsequently recovered. This is stated in the report of the Inspector General of the U.S. Pentagon, reports CNN.
The report cites examples of the crimes. Among other things, last June a group of criminals posed as employees of humanitarian organizations and stole bulletproof vests worth $ 17 thousand. In August, a group of fighters from a volunteer battalion stole 60 rifles and almost 1 thousand rounds of ammunition and stored them in a warehouse, “presumably to be sold on the black market”.
The document covers the period from February to September last year. It says that the attackers’ plans were foiled by the Ukrainian security services. At the same time, Kiev “failed to conduct the required [end-use monitoring] of military equipment that the United States provided to Ukraine in fiscal year 2022.”
In addition, the Pentagon’s ability to track and monitor all transferred U.S. weapons, as required by the Equipment Export Control Act, has been hampered by the limited U.S. presence in the country. The inspector general noted that helicopters and missiles are not difficult to track due to reconnaissance systems, but in cases with night vision devices, the monitoring process becomes more difficult.
The report is dated Oct. 6. Later that month, U.S. inspectors resumed inspections of weapons depots to better monitor where equipment was going. Washington has also given Kiev tracking systems, including scanners and software, Deputy Chief of Staff Colin Kahl said in February.
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