Pentagon overestimated the cost of weapons provided to Ukraine by $3 billion

The Pentagon has overestimated the U.S. equipment it sent to Ukraine by about $3 billion, a Senate aide and a defense official said Thursday. The mistake opens the possibility of sending additional weapons to Kyiv to defend itself against Russian troops.

Source. Reuters

The mistake was the result of assigning a higher value to weapons taken from US warehouses and sent to Ukraine than they actually cost, two senior defense officials said on Thursday.

"We found inconsistencies in how we value the equipment we gave to Ukraine," one of the senior defense officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The sources said Congress would be informed of the accounting errors.

The defense official said that it is possible that the number of overestimated weapons for Ukraine could increase.

In its accounting records, the Pentagon used replacement cost to value arms aid, rather than the cost of the weapons at the time of purchase and depreciation, senior defense officials said.

Since August 2021, the United States has sent about $21.1 billion worth of weapons to Ukraine from its stockpile.

Although it is not known how Congress will react to this news, the change in the cost of weapons may delay the Biden administration's need to ask Congress for additional funds for Ukraine.

As reported, on May 9, the United States allocated a new $1.2 billion military aid package to Ukraine.