The Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Tuesday that it overestimated the value of the military aid it has sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion over the past two years.
The accounting error found that the military services used replacement costs rather than the book value of equipment that was sent to Ukraine. Singh said final calculations show there was an error of $3.6 billion in the current fiscal year and $2.6 billion in the 2022 fiscal year, which ended last September 30.
This offers the department additional funds to support Ukraine as it pursues its counteroffensive against Russia.
“It’s just going to go back into the pot of money that we have allocated” for the future Pentagon stock drawdowns,” said Singh.
The disclosure comes as Ukraine moves ahead with the early stages its counteroffensive, in an effort to dislodge the Kremlin’s forces from territory they’ve occupied since a full-scale invasion in February 2022. The counteroffensive has come up against heavily mined terrain and reinforced defensive fortifications, according to Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces.
The Pentagon has repeatedly used presidential drawdown authority to pull military aid, ammunition and other equipment off the shelves, so that it can get to Ukraine far more quickly than going through a purchase process.
President Joe Biden and his senior national security leaders have repeatedly stated that the United States will help Ukraine “as long as it takes” to repel the Russian forces. Singh said the accounting mistake won’t affect the ongoing delivery of aid to Ukraine.