No, the U.S. didn’t ‘accidentally’ send an extra $6 billion to Ukraine

The U.S. has pledged tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine – more than any other country in the world – since Russia invaded the country in February 2022.

Now, more than a year after the war began, news outlets are reporting that the Pentagon made an “accounting error” in providing aid to Ukraine. 

In response to those reports, popular comedian and podcaster Terrence Williams claimed in a viral tweet that the U.S. “accidentally” sent an extra $6 billion dollars in aid to Ukraine. He wrote in a follow-up tweet that this money was “stolen from the American people.”

A VERIFY reader on TikTok also asked the team to clear up confusion surrounding the $6 billion accounting error for Ukraine. 

THE QUESTION

Did the U.S. government accidentally send an extra $6 billion to Ukraine?

THE SOURCES

• Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh
• Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow and director of research in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution

THE ANSWER

No, the U.S. government did not accidentally send an extra $6 billion to Ukraine. 

WHAT WE FOUND

This viral claim takes what actually happened completely out of context. The U.S. actually sent about $6 billion less than it intended in military equipment to Ukraine – not $6 billion more.   

That happened because the Pentagon overestimated the value of military equipment sent to the country, meaning it was worth about $6 billion less than originally estimated. 

Since the start of the war, Congress has approved more than $113 billion in aid and military assistance for Ukraine, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CFPB) says. As of January 2023, the federal government sent Ukraine about $26 billion in direct military aid, including hardware, training and supplies, according to the CFPB. 

When the U.S. sends military equipment such as weapons to Ukraine, it gives that equipment a monetary value.

But a Department of Defense (DOD) review revealed “inconsistencies in equipment valuation for Ukraine,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said in a briefing on June 20. 

This accounting error resulted in the Pentagon “overestimating the value” of military equipment sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion, Singh said. The DOD did not specify exactly what military equipment was sent to Ukraine.

In other words, the DOD found that the value of equipment sent to Ukraine was actually $6.2 billion less than the Pentagon originally estimated. 

That total breaks down to overestimated values of $2.6 billion in fiscal year 2022 and $3.6 billion in fiscal year 2023, Singh said.

The accounting error means the federal government has an extra $6.2 billion that it can use to provide aid to Ukraine in the future, Michael O’Hanlon, a foreign policy expert at the Brookings Institution, explained. 

Singh also said the $6.2 billion will “go back into the pot of money” that the federal government has allocated for assistance to Ukraine.