Dealing with mounting stress from Republicans to audit the billions of {dollars}’ price of help that the US is sending to Ukraine, President Joe Biden’s administration prompt on Friday that there’s no trigger for concern that funds are being misappropriated.

“We’ve seen no indication to this point that any of the assets or weapons we have supplied to Ukraine have been misused, misplaced, stolen, bought on the black market or captured by the Russians,” Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby mentioned in a press briefing. He made the same declare in January, apparently ignoring reviews suggesting in any other case.

CBS Information reported in August that solely about 30% of the Western weapons despatched to Ukraine have been making it to the entrance strains, saying the weaponry needed to get by a posh community of “energy lords, oligarchs [and] political gamers” to succeed in the troops. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky final month fired a number of senior officers in his authorities for profiteering from Western help. Ukraine constantly ranks among the many most corrupt international locations in Europe, in keeping with Transparency Worldwide.

Washington has allotted $113 billion in help to Kiev for the reason that Russia-Ukraine battle started a 12 months in the past. Lawmakers in Biden’s Democratic Social gathering and even some Republicans have dismissed calls to arrange stronger oversight of the huge help packages, regardless that the Pentagon has acknowledged that the sheer scale of this system creates a “very actual” threat of assets being misused.

With Republicans profitable management of Congress in November’s midterm elections, the Biden administration has confronted rising requires accountability. The Home Oversight Committee demanded on Wednesday that the administration flip over paperwork proving that the navy and financial help allotted to Ukraine isn’t being misplaced to “waste, fraud and abuse.”

Consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, mentioned on Thursday that she is going to introduce a invoice to power an audit of the Ukraine help program. “That’s precisely what the American individuals want, an audit of Ukraine, as a result of we don’t know the place all this cash’s going,” she mentioned in a Fox Information interview.

Latest polling reveals that public help for US involvement within the Ukraine disaster is waning. An Related Press-NORC ballot launched final week confirmed that solely 48% of Individuals help continued navy help to Kiev.