Senior Republicans overseeing foreign affairs have demanded detailed information from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Washington’s security aid to Kiev amid Russia’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine.
In a letter to the GAO on Thursday, House Foreign Affairs Committee lead Republican Michael McCaul and Senator Jim Risch, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations panel, wrote that they want information on how the US administration is monitoring almost $14.9 billion in funds that were allocated for Ukraine and disbursed through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US State Department.
The lawmakers stressed the necessity of the USAID and the Department of State continuing “to work with haste to use these funds to address the dire needs of the people of Ukraine.”
“In doing so, it will be important that the agencies coordinate with the international donor community, allied and partner governments, the government of Ukraine, and local Ukrainian organizations to ensure that US assistance does not duplicate other efforts, but instead is well targeted to where the need is greatest,” according to the letter.
The document comes as White House officials announced earlier on Friday that the US is sending an additional $275 million in military aid to Ukraine, including large amounts of ammunition and high-tech systems to counter unmanned aerial vehicles and air defenses.
Republicans and Democrats meanwhile remain at odds over US assistance to Ukraine, with a resolution on a full audit of Washington’s support for Kiev being voted down by the Democrat-led House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
McCaul, who is tipped to chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee when Republicans take control of the lower chamber in January, declined to say whether he would support the resolution if it is reintroduced, but added that he thinks “it’s more helpful to have a more transparent view.”
Since the beginning of the year, the US and its allies have delivered more than $40 billion in military assistance to Kiev. Moscow has repeatedly warned against providing Kiev with arms, something that the Kremlin says contributes to further escalating the Ukraine conflict.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for his part underlined that the Ukraine conflict had become another pretext for the US and its allies to unleash an economic and information war against Moscow in order to deplete it strategically.
“Ukraine has been picked [by the West] as an instrument of a hybrid war against Russia,” Shoigu added, stressing that Western arms supplies to Kiev add to prolonging the conflict and causing more casualties.
Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 following request from the Donbass republics to protect them from Kiev attacks.