Weapons Under Control

In exactly three weeks, the US Department of Defense Inspector General Robert Storch will get a promotion and starting from October 18, he will serve as the Lead IG for Operation Atlantic Resolve (OAR), a U.S. initiative launched in 2014 to strengthen the NATO alliance in response to Russia's military actions in Ukraine. Storch will arrive in Kyiv to lead a newly strengthened team to monitor the weapons, equipment and technology that the United States is transferring to Ukraine to help combat and deter the aggressive appetites of one of the world's largest nuclear powers, Russia, which launched a full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022. 

Some of the inspectors already arrived in Kyiv in late August, while other team members are expected to arrive by the end of September.

The Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defense has announced the appointment of a lead inspector general for the Pentagon's monitoring group amid a tense election campaign, when more and more American politicians are stirring up electoral sentiment with radical, often contradictory messages in their struggle for new supporters. For example, Republicans are increasingly aggressively expressing doubts about the need to spend billions of dollars in Ukraine and calling for an audit of the distribution and use of weapons.

Kyiv took the news of the new monitoring group in stride. Generously funded by petrodollars, Russia's multi-vector propaganda machine has tried so often to sow suspicion about Ukraine's integrity that local officials have learned to work with this reality. Outright fakes, paid-for articles posing as investigations, paid-for influencers and think tanks, manipulation of facts and controversial statements by opinion leaders - all these varieties of Kremlin information weapons are now amplified by the interests of political opponents in Western countries - and this is something Ukraine will have to work with, as it always has.

Accusations without any proofs and evidence

In July 2022, the Financial Times published an article entitled "NATO and EU sound alarm over risk of Ukraine weapons smuggling". Among the messages are "insistence" by NATO and EU countries "on better tracking of weapons in Ukraine" and concerns about "criminal groups smuggling weapons to the black market." None of these statements were supported by facts and were based on the words of anonymous sources. Congresswoman Victoria Spartz responded by stating the need to create a joint working group to oversee allied weapons thus triggering a wave of discussion.

In response, Ukraine created a temporary special commission to monitor the receipt and use of international material and technical assistance during martial law, headed by then MP and now Minister Rustem Umerov.

Another source for the "exciting" disinformation campaign was the data taken out of context from the Pentagon Inspector General's report for 2022. The document stated that between February and September, monitoring was hampered by the fact that personnel were not physically able to visit the places where weapons provided to Kyiv for protection were used and stored.

And, while missiles and helicopters were easy to track with trackers, smaller items, such as night vision devices, were more difficult to monitor.

The report also stated that at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the criminals did manage to steal some weapons and equipment. For example, in late June 2022, an organized criminal group led by an unnamed Russian official joined a volunteer battalion using forged documents and stole weapons.

However, Ukrainian intelligence uncovered the plot and returned the equipment. Similar situations, as noted, occurred several more times, and each time, the weapons were found and returned by the Ukrainian military.

During that period, receipts from the Ukrainian side, as well as reports on expenses, losses and damage to equipment, which were "provided in good faith," were used as an additional method of control.

In late October, the United States resumed on-site inspections of Ukrainian weapons depots.

Everything is under control

According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, at present, international partners have full access to verify the effectiveness of their weapons in Ukraine, and to monitor and control the military equipment and weapons provided to Ukraine, Kyiv uses several separate special systems, some of the details of which are classified.

One of them is the SOTA information and analytical system, which allows monitoring new arms deliveries according to their current status, for example, whether they are ready for shipment, in transit, or received by the Armed Forces, as well as by the country of delivery. The system is also capable of ranking arms deliveries by time, periods of adoption, compliance with NATO standards, classification as Soviet weapons, etc.

In addition, in 2019, Ukraine was granted access to the NATO logistics system LOGFAS. The system is called a "bridge between NATO armies". Allies enter data on the number of troops, weapons, trains, ports, roads, etc. into LOGFAS to speed up troop deployment and simplify logistics. Then, based on algorithms, the system calculates how much and what is needed to carry out a military operation, meaning that LOGFAS automatically plans a military operation based on the data entered.

The system, localized in Ukraine, is primarily designed to simplify paperwork and better plan operations for logistics officers. The system also allows for control over everything from customs operations at the border to deliveries to the end user. In addition, the system also reports on the need for ammunition, spare parts, etc.

Significant details

The system of monitoring and control of weapons provided to Ukraine by Western partners is of such high quality that since February 2022 it has been able to pass regular "confidence" tests.

The Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communications cites several other important arguments to be used when doubts arise about the "proper use of weapons."

EUCOM Control Center of Ukraine (ECCU), located in Stuttgart, organizes the logistics of military assistance to Ukraine, communication between the militaries of partner countries, and monitoring. The Center, which was established as a result of a Ramstein meeting of defense ministers from 42 countries, is staffed by representatives of Ukraine and 15 donor countries.

Representatives of all partner countries are officially invited to Ukraine to monitor the use of weapons. Each partner agrees on a format of cooperation that is comfortable for the parties.

However, not all information is disclosed upon request of partner countries. Some partners, guided by their own national interests, insist that the Ukrainian side not disclose the scope and range of assistance they provide to Kyiv.

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The White House, the U.S. Department of Defense, and European governments that supply Ukraine with weapons have not publicly voiced complaints against Ukraine or expressed doubts about the effectiveness of their use.

U.S. representatives regularly travel to Ukraine for inspections.

In January 2023, amid corruption scandals in the Defense Ministry, American auditors came to Kyiv. They found no significant violations and no evidence that "aid or weapons were being diverted."

Last fall, the Pentagon also conducted monitoring in Ukraine. At the time, the US stated that it had no information that the weapons provided to Ukraine were being misused.