No, the US did not send Ukraine $6 billion by mistake
A member of the State Border Guard of Ukraine waits to show weapons to U.S, Secretary of State Antony Blinken as he tours a State Border Guard of Ukraine Detached Commandant Office of Security and Resource Supply site Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023, in the Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. The U.S. did not accidentally send Ukraine $6 billion in military aid, as some online have alleged. This claim misinterprets a Pentagon announcement in June that the agency had overestimated the value of weapons it sent to Ukraine. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool via AP)
CLAIM: The U.S. accidentally sent Ukraine $6 billion in military aid.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The claim misinterprets an announcement by a Pentagon spokesperson in June that the agency had overestimated the value of weapons it sent to Ukraine over the past two years by $6.2 billion. That meant more could be sent in the future without asking Congress for additional funds, not that billions of dollars had been sent in error.
THE FACTS: A recent episode of comedian Joe Rogan’s podcast has resurfaced such claims about U.S. assistance in the Russia-Ukraine war, which initially spread after the Pentagon’s announcement earlier this summer.
In a clip from the Sept. 7 episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Rogan states that the U.S. “accidentally sent” $6 billion to Ukraine. Rogan made the comment during a conversation with former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard about the government’s response to the recent wildfires in Maui.
One post of the clip on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, had received approximately 41,800 likes and more than 10,700 shares as of Wednesday.
But Rogan’s claim misconstrues the Pentagon’s June statement. Rogan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sabrina Singh, a spokesperson for the agency, said during the June press conference that the Pentagon had overestimated the value of weapons it sent to Ukraine since the start of the war by $6.2 billion, resulting in a surplus for future security packages.
A detailed review of the accounting error found that replacement costs, rather than book value, were used to calculate the value of equipment pulled from Pentagon stocks for Ukraine, according to Singh.
The Pentagon initially stated that it had overestimated the weapons’ value by at least $3 billion. Final calculations showed there was an error of $3.6 billion in the current fiscal year and $2.6 billion in the 2022 fiscal year, which ended last Sept. 30.
Singh added that the $6.2 billion was “just going to go back into the pot of money” that’s been allocated for future withdrawals of Pentagon equipment.
The Pentagon this month announced a new $600 million package of long-term aid to Ukraine, which will provide funding for an array of weapons and other equipment. The assistance comes from money previously approved by Congress. President Joe Biden has requested $21 billion more in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine in the final months of 2023.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.