(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was grilled by the far-left media over the recent “accounting error” made by the Pentagon about Ukraine aid, giving the Biden administration another black eye for its ineptness.
In an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, host Jake Tapper confronted Sullivan about the Pentagon’s accounting error of $3 billion that would benefit Ukraine.
“That’s a hell of an accounting error!” Tapper exclaimed.
The host also added the mistake provided fodder to critics of the country’s aid to Ukraine and “critics who say there’s not enough oversight going on. Are you concerned about this accounting error?”
Sullivan explained that the Pentagon potentially overestimated the value of the weapons it had sent to Ukraine.
“That is not money that went out the door and disappeared,” Sullivan said. “It will all be provided in the form of equipment to Ukraine on the battlefield and it would be better to get it right in terms of the accounting up front.”
The error was possibly caused by an oversight in the Pentagon’s evaluation process. Instead of using the current value of the weapons, officials instead opted to value them at the cost it would take to completely replace them, resulting in some items being valued at an exorbitant amount.
Intentional or a mistake, it could free up more money for weapons as Ukraine is on the verge of a much-anticipated counterattack. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed the offensive delay was because his military was not equipped.
The U.S. has been a supporter of Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022, providing nearly $37 billion in military aid to the beleaguered nation. In addition to the military support, the U.S. has also committed over $100 billion in discretionary funding to cover government operations, including salaries and pensions.
However, widespread corruption allegations started surfacing against Zelenskyy‘s government in recent months, and U.S. officials with the State Department could do little but acknowledge the damning reality: once the money left their hands, there was no telling where it would end up — suspecting corruption by the Ukranian government.
