Pentagon Millions Subsidizing Ukraine’s Border Guards

US Embassy Went Shopping in Kiev for Gear

It’s a good time to sell military usable non-lethal aid in Kiev these days, as the US Embassy in Ukraine has been going shopping, buying millions of dollars of equipment from the local stores and sending it to border guards along the Russian border.

The story of Ukraine’s border patrols are the same as that of their military everywhere else. Nothing works, and spare parts are in short supply. Many of the US purchases are things like car batteries and fuel pumps, to get its vehicles up and running.

The embassy doesn’t just have millions of dollars to throw around, of course, so the money is actually coming out of the Pentagon, who told Congress today that aid to the Ukraine has totaled $18 million so far.

Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Evelyn Farkas says the millions are only a drop in the bucket, however, and that Ukraine’s requests for aid since the regime change “vastly outstrips our abilities to meet them.”

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.