No evidence U.S. aid to Ukraine has been lost to alleged corruption, officials say
Global News
House Republicans are launching probes into the billions of dollars sent to Ukraine during Russia's year-long invasion, with some arguing aid should be stopped entirely.
Top Pentagon officials told lawmakers on Tuesday that no evidence exists yet that any of the billions of dollars in U.S. aid sent to Ukraine to fight Russia‘s invasion has been lost due to corruption, but noted those investigations are still ongoing.
The hearing held by the House Armed Services Committee comes as some Republicans are openly questioning whether further aid to Ukraine should be slowed or stopped entirely, and are levelling allegations of corruption in the Ukrainian government.
Robert P. Storch, the Pentagon’s inspector general, was pressed by House of Representative members several times about whether they have been any findings of fraud. He said a number of tips and allegations have come in to a new hotline, but there have been “limited findings” to date, with many reports pending.
Storch repeatedly said he did not want to talk about investigations that have not yet been completed.
Corruption allegations against the Ukrainian government have persisted for decades — thanks partially to the country’s Soviet-era ties with Moscow — and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed to root it out when he came into office in 2019.
But Zelenskyy’s government is currently grappling with a corruption scandal that has claimed the jobs of several senior government officials, including inside the country’s defence ministry. Several deputies of Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov have been fired.
Members of Congress have persistently questioned how closely the U.S. is tracking its aid to Ukraine to ensure that it is not subject to fraud or ending up in the wrong hands.
The Pentagon has a “robust program” to track the aid as it crosses the border into Ukraine and to keep tabs on it once it is there, depending on the sensitivity of each weapons system, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday at a press briefing.
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