Where’s All That Military Aid for Ukraine Going?

Perhaps you’ve heard this narrative: The U.S. is pouring billions of dollars into Ukraine and no one knows where all the weapons and cash are ending up. This is more fiction than reality, but President Biden should welcome a Senate effort to shore up public confidence in support for Kyiv.

Both the House and Senate defense policy bills include measures to beef up oversight on U.S. aid for Ukraine. Three inspectors general across the departments of Defense, State and USAID have been tracking everything from Javelin missiles to 60 excavators donated to repair water systems. So oversight is already considerable.

But sending weapons and help into Ukraine is an enormous undertaking, and tracking is all the tougher given that few Americans are in Ukraine during the war. Bad actors will doubtless try to exploit the chaos of conflict and Ukraine’s fledgling public institutions to steal. Some U.S. aid will be lost or wasted, as is inevitable in a war.

But the U.S. government is producing a litany of reports for Congressional and public consumption. Anyone struggling to fall asleep at night can read Pentagon IG dispatches about how the U.S. military and Ukraine have at times been inconsistent in tracking night-vision equipment. Or the tale, from a June installment, of 35 sniper scopes that weren’t accounted for by serial number before transfer, photo included.

A sensible amendment to the Senate defense bill from GOP Sens. Roger Wicker and Jim Risch would have created a lead inspector general—a point person responsible for tracking U.S. aid. The proposal needed 60 votes to pass and failed 51-48 late Wednesday evening.

But House Republicans may insist on oversight measures as part of a conference negotiation, and the Wicker-Risch proposal would be a good one. Some in the GOP prefer more stringent provisions. Yet accountability must be balanced with speed in delivering equipment, and Ukraine doesn’t need another front trying to overcome U.S. bureaucracy.

More accountability on U.S. aid would neutralize a core argument that Mr. Biden’s Ukraine critics are making. And it might reveal the truth that many in Congress who would abandon Ukraine aren’t motivated by the risk of losing some artillery pieces. They think the U.S. should retreat to its borders and let someone else worry about the world’s rogues and growing disorder.

Taxpayers deserve to know where their money is going, which is why IG oversight is a worthy project. But aid to Ukraine is in America’s national interest. Among other things, it is degrading Russian military power and forcing the Chinese Communist Party to think twice about provoking the U.S. or its allies in a military confrontation.

Keeping the U.S. armed forces from having to fight is money well spent. Mr. Biden might even make that point to the American people one of these days.