The Pentagon acknowledged Tuesday that it had overestimated the value of the weapons, ammunition, and other military equipment it has sent to Ukraine by several billion dollars more than a preliminary estimate calculated last month. The Defense Department overstated the value of the aid by $2.6 billion in the last fiscal year and $3.6 billion in this fiscal year, for a total of $6.2 billion, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said. She explained that a detailed review found that the error stemmed from using replacement costs rather than book values of equipment sent to Ukraine, according to the Associated Press. The surplus will be used to bolster further support for Ukraine, with Singh saying, “It’s just going to go back into the pot of money that we have allocated for the future Pentagon stock drawdowns.” In May, Reuters reported that the defense officials had discovered that aid to Ukraine had been overvalued by roughly $3 billion. The Pentagon confirmed the report shortly after, cautioning that the real number could turn out to be even higher once the matter was fully investigated.
