A new report from the Inspector General shows that weapons that the U.S. sends to Ukraine are in fact ending up on the black market.
The report also says that the legally required monitoring of the weapons is not happening. The report says that they have “some accountability” for “observable platforms” like missiles and helicopters but the small items, “such as night vision devices” sometimes just go missing.
When asked about this problem, a State Department spokesperson said this, “The US government remains keenly aware of the risk of possible illicit diversion and is proactively taking steps to mitigate this risk in close cooperation with the government of Ukraine.”
So basically: Shoulder shrug, it happens. We’re going to keep the weapons flowing.
Congress has repeatedly rejected the idea of appointing a special inspector general for weapons provisions to Ukraine.
A British couple was fined recently for attempting to smuggle American-made M141s from Ukraine across the border to France. They said that they were gifted the weapons as “symbols of victory.”
