The EU began an audit of aid to Kyiv after declaring that not enough is being done

Brussels is conducting an audit of the military aid of the EU member states to Kyiv since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Ukrainian territory by the Russian army. Financial Times writes about this on Tuesday with reference to three informed diplomatic sources.

As the publication notes, the inspection was organized in response to claims that some states could not send Ukraine the amount of aid they could afford. In particular, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz last week demanded to calculate and compare the volumes of deliveries to Kyiv. “Weapons supplies to Ukraine, planned by the majority of EU member states, are too small,” Scholz believes.

The publication of the Financial Times states that Western military and financial aid to Ukraine has decreased in recent months, which has limited Kiev’s ability to defend itself against Russian attacks and launch counteroffensive operations. This has given rise to fears that readiness to help Ukraine is weakening after almost two years of war.

The audit is being conducted by the European External Relations Service, which intends to present its findings before the EU summit on February 1.

According to one of the sources of the Financial Times, during the inspection, the experts will rely on the materials presented by the members of the European bloc in response to the relevant request of Brussels. The interlocutor of the publication noted that this request has already met resistance from some countries, which made it clear that they do not want to provide auditors with complete data.

The current audit is being conducted at a time when Brussels, as well as Washington, are trying to find a political consensus that would allow them to sign new aid packages to Kyiv worth about 110 billion dollars. In the United States, bipartisan differences still prevent the adoption of a new financing package for Ukraine in the amount of more than 60 billion dollars, which the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden insists on.

• Last week, the results of an audit conducted by experts of the American Ministry of Defense were reported. In the conclusions presented by the inspector general of the US Ministry of Defense, Robert Storch, it was indicated that part of the US military aid to Ukraine in the amount of more than one billion dollars was not properly tracked.
• The Pentagon’s report did not include any evidence of misuse of weapons. However, experts found out that officials of the American military department and diplomats in Washington and Europe could not quickly or fully report on many of the almost 40 thousand units of weapons, which by law had to be carefully controlled. The New York Times wrote about it.

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