Press Release: Follow Up Evaluation of Enhanced End Use Monitoring of Defense Articles Provided to Ukraine (Report No. DODIG 2025 050)

Inspector General Robert P. Storch announced today that the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) released the report "Follow-Up Evaluation of Enhanced End-Use Monitoring of Defense Articles Provided to Ukraine." The evaluation is the fifth in an ongoing series to determine the extent to which the DoD conducts enhanced end-use monitoring (EEUM) of designated defense articles provided to the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF). Enhanced end-use monitoring is the process of accounting for designated sensitive defense articles provided to foreign partners.

The DoD OIG found significant improvements in the DoD's accountability of EEUM-designated defense articles provided to Ukraine. The number of EEUM-designated defense articles provided to Ukraine increased by 81% between June 2023 and May 2024. During this same period, the DoD's inventory compliance rate improved from 40% to 88% for EEUM-designated defense articles provided to Ukraine. The DoD OIG attributes the compliance improvements to the UAF's self-reporting in quarterly disposition status reports to the Office of Defense Cooperation-Ukraine (ODC-Ukraine), the identification of defense articles by serial numbers prior to shipment, and the implementation of standard operating procedures at the logistics enabling nodes. Despite these improvements, the DoD OIG found that the ODC-Ukraine was not always aware when EEUM-designated defense articles were shipped to Ukraine from allied partners. This occurred because third-party transfer notifications from the Department of State to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) and to the Office of Defense Cooperation in both the divesting and receiving countries were not required.

"Although the DoD improved the accuracy and completeness of its EEUM inventory process in a hostile environment, accountability challenges remain with U.S. items provided under third-party transfer," said IG Storch. "This increases the risk of inaccurately accounting for combat-capable EEUM-designated defense articles transferred through this means to Ukraine."

The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, in coordination with the DSCA and the Department of State, develop and implement a policy requiring that a single entity be responsible for providing notification of the authorization, initiation, and completion of third-party transfer EEUM-designated defense articles to ODCs in hostile environments. The DoD OIG will continue to monitor the DoD's progress toward full implementation of these recommendations.