US Navy Buys 33 Boats With Funds From 26 Aid Items Cut to Ukraine. Why Did This Happen

The US Navy inflated the cost of boats transferred to Ukraine, allowing it to acquire more new vessels for its own needs.

This was stated in an audit of military aid expenditures published on the Pentagon website.

Auditors found that proper supporting documentation was not provided for $193.4 million. They also reported possible misuse of funds intended for stock replenishment.

In particular, after transferring 24 assault boats to Ukraine, 33 new boats were purchased for $3.8 million — nine more than expected. The additional purchases cost $1 million.

In total, the audit covered 80 tranches of military aid worth $22.1 billion. In 32 tranches worth $5.7 billion, auditors found no supporting documents or estimates.

Of that amount, $1 billion was classified as “questionable expenses,” and another $920 million was deemed to have been used ineffectively.

The auditors did not specify which boats were overvalued. It is assumed that “assault boats” refers to small vessels such as the SURC (Small Unit Riverine Craft), Sea Ark Dauntless, and other small sea and river class boats.

It was also not reported which models were purchased to replace those transferred to Ukraine.

Analysis of US military aid

US military aid to Ukraine has long been a topic of political debate in the United States.

In 2022, the Joe Biden administration highlighted large overall figures to demonstrate the scale of support for Ukraine, though the actual amount of aid was smaller.

By 2024, the same numbers were used by Republican politicians to argue that too much aid had been provided.

In total, the figure is about $120 billion, of which Ukraine has already received about $80 billion.

Read more: How much aid has the US provided to Ukraine and why is everything complicated? (in Ukrainian)