Pentagon admits it overvalued Ukraine military aid by $6.2 billion

An accounting error led the Pentagon to overvalue the military aid the United States has sent Ukraine by $6.2 billion over the past two years, double the amount first estimated. 

The Defense Department (DOD) earlier this year “discovered inconsistencies in equipment valuation for Ukraine,” specifically that the military services used replacement costs rather than the net book value of equipment that was taken from Pentagon stocks to send to Ukraine, deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Tuesday.  

Singh said calculations revealed there was an overestimation of $3.6 billion in the current fiscal year and $2.6 billion in fiscal 2022, which ended Sept. 30.

That means the Pentagon has an unexpected influx of money banked to use to bolster Ukraine in its newly launched counteroffensive against Russia.  

“It’s just going to go back into the pot of money that we have allocated” for future military stock drawdowns, Singh said, adding that the error won’t affect the ongoing delivery of aid to Ukraine. 

The Biden administration has repeatedly used presidential drawdown authority to pull U.S. missiles, vehicles, ammunition and other equipment from Pentagon stockpiles to quickly move to Ukraine. The method gets the security assistance to Kyiv much faster than the sometimes lengthy process of buying weapons directly from defense firms, which must build out orders before shipping them to the embattled country.  

Washington earlier this month said it had committed more than $40 billion in lethal aid to Ukraine using presidential drawdown authority since Russia attacked the country in February 2022. But under the new calculation, that number is now less than $34 billion.

The admission means the administration has some extra room in replenishing U.S. military equipment sent to Kyiv.

Washington so far has approved four rounds of military assistance worth a total $113 billion for Ukraine since last winter, with some of those dollars meant to replenish U.S. stocks.

The latest round of aid, approved by Congress in December, totaled some $45 billion for Ukraine and NATO allies and was meant to last through the end of this fiscal year. 

The new error estimate is also far higher than the Pentagon previously reported. The Wall Street Journal first found in May that the DOD overcounted the value of security assistance sent to Ukraine by at least $3 billion.