Appoint a Watchdog for Ukraine Aid
More transparency over how billions are being spent would protect US taxpayers and sustain political support for the war.
Time to keep tabs.
Photographer: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the Kyiv government has received more than $60 billion in security and humanitarian assistance from the US, making it by far the world’s biggest annual recipient of such aid. Now some Republican leaders want to toughen oversight over how those funds are being spent. They’re right to do so.
The scale of the aid effort is unprecedented. In just seven months, the US has provided Ukraine with nearly double what it gave all of western Europe on an annual basis during the Marshall Plan in real terms. Support for Ukraine’s military this year equals what the US provided Israel, Egypt and Afghanistan combined in 2020. Washington has accounted for two-thirds of all military and humanitarian assistance offered to Ukraine since the start of the war; in dollar terms, it has contributed twice as much as the entire European Union.