U.S. Oversight of Ukraine Aid, Explained

Where does it come from and where does it go?

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An M142 HIMARS launches a rocket on May 18, 2023, in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. (Photo by Serhii Mykhalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)

President Joe Biden has declared the United States will support Ukraine in its war against Russia “for as long as it takes as it defends its sovereignty and territorial integrity.” But how any aid sent to Ukraine is appropriated, spent, and regulated is a convoluted and controversial procedure.  

Since August 2021—following Russia’s initial military buildup along the Ukrainian border—the United States has provided $76.8 billion in aid to Ukraine, according to Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Of that, 61 percent ($46.6 billion) is military aid, 34 percent ($26.4 billion) is economic aid, and the remaining 5 percent ($3.9 billion) is for humanitarian aid.   

But whether to send more has been a source of friction between some congressional Republicans and the Biden administration, and some Republicans are calling for more clarity on what costs Biden is willing to incur for “as long as it takes.” On November 3, the Biden administration announced new security assistance for Ukraine, totaling $425 million in previously allocated money. The administration is using the Presidential Drawdown Authority to send $125 million worth of inventory from Department of Defense stockpiles and allocated $300 million in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative Funds to provide laser-guided munitions, which would exhaust the latter.

What is Presidential Drawdown Authority?

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  1. James_rice

    Good article, but I think saying the Ukrainians "self report" frontline weapons understates the tracking mechanism. Ukrainian soldiers have been trained in using scanners that scan barcodes on the weapons and the data is uploaded directly to our weapons inspectors in Kyiv, who also are given regular access to the Ukrainian military's own equipment database. Also, it is true that the World Bank does not let us see into their process, but USAID has developed a work around directly with the Ukrainians whereby once the funds are released by the World Bank, a team from Deloitte tracks the funds through the Ukrainian Finance Ministry to the relevant ministry that is being reimbursed, with spot checks to the final recipients, such as teachers. Deloitte provides reports directly back the USAID. USAID has also contracted an audit firm to do a full audit of the direct budgetary support funds inside Ukraine.

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  2. HalinTexas

    How much is it going to cost us NOT to send aid to Ukraine? Or Israel? Reputation and credibility not included.

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    Addicus

    A lot of the aid is the equivalent of us sending our 10-year old Camry to the Ukrainians while using the funds to buy ourselves a replacement Corvette.

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  4. CB76

    Where does it come from ... Cotton Eyed Joe?

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    1. Avatar photo
      Wilhelm

      Yeah, it got me too. Emma, did they do that to your subhead because of the whole Texas thing?

      Nice work, by the way.

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  5. Michael Hartley

    Thank you for this explainer. It is the kind of reporting needed in order to have an informed opinion. When it comes from the Dispatch, I trust it.

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