Fifty-nine percent of Democrats support further aid.
QUICK FACTS:
- A new Rasmussen poll from RMG Research found that the majority of Republicans and Independents oppose Congress sending more aid to Ukraine.
- The poll revealed that 54% of Republicans and 56% of Independents oppose additional funding.
- Only 17% of Independents support additional Ukraine aid, compared to 29% of Republicans.
- According to the poll, the majority of Americans believe a greater issue is keeping the United States out of a potentially larger war.
- Fifty-three percent of American voters think it is likely that there may be a greater war between Russia, Europe, and the United States as a result of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
- Both Republicans and Democrats reported opposition to sending American soldiers into the conflict.
AID LACKS OVERSIGHT:
- An October 2022 Inspector General report released in July revealed that Ukraine aid has gone missing or has been taken by criminal organizations.
- “During the evaluation, we found that the DOD was unable to provide end-use monitoring (EUM) in accordance with DOD policy because of limited U.S. presence in Ukraine,” the report reads. “Therefore, we are issuing this report identifying the challenges faced by DOD personnel responsible for conducting EUM and Enhanced EUM (EEUM) when there are limited or no U.S. personnel present in the area the equipment is being used.”
- “In late June 2022, the SBU disrupted a group of Ukrainian criminals posing as members of a humanitarian aid organization who distributed bulletproof vests,” the report goes on to say. “The group illicitly imported the vests and sold them, rather than distributed them to Ukrainian forces. A member of the group was found with a cache of vests worth $17,000.”
- The failure to account for a variety of aid led to Republican senators proposing amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act, some of which include audits on U.S. aid and creating the Office of the Lead Inspector General for Ukraine Assistance to provide oversight on the matter.
- The amendments failed after strong opposition from Democrats.
BACKGROUND:
- A Pentagon “accounting error” led to an additional $6.2 billion in military aid for Ukraine.
- Pentagon representative Sabrina Singh said military services mistakenly applied the replacement costs rather than the book value of the dispatched equipment from Pentagon stocks to Ukraine.
- The result of the error led to a boost in the Department of Defense’s (DOD)’s budget.
- According to Signh, the surplus was “going to go back into the pot of money that we have allocated.”
