Report Contents
This brief is designed to provide considerations for the Department of State (Department) as it executes programs and operations in support of response efforts following Russia’s February 2022 further invasion of Ukraine.
The ongoing war in Ukraine is the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II and has had deep and wide-ranging consequences. The war has resulted in the displacement of almost a third of Ukraine’s population and produced an estimated 216,500 casualties.1 It is expected to drive significant reductions in gross domestic product for the two combatant nations while suppressing global economic growth, contributing to supply chain disruptions and inflationary effects, and producing shortages in energy, food, and other key commodities.2
The scale and scope of the U.S. government’s response has been sizable. In three supplemental appropriations in March, May, and September 2022, Congress provided more than $66 billion in funding for Ukraine response efforts across 11 federal departments and agencies.3 Of this total, accounts managed by the Department received more than $22 billion, supporting Department operations as well as programming designed to provide civil and military security, humanitarian relief, economic assistance, and counterproliferation, among other priorities. A wide array of Department bureaus, offices, and field missions are, engaged in these efforts.
The Biden Administration has described U.S. government Ukraine response efforts as addressing such major national security objectives as promoting democracy, disincentivizing future aggression, and ensuring a peaceful and stable Europe. The administration has signaled that failure to deliver on these aims could have catastrophic consequences.4 The U.S. government’s response efforts have continued to evolve in a dynamic environment confronting significant operational disruptions and requiring adaptations to unanticipated developments on the ground. Meanwhile, the nature and terms of the conflict itself have been subject to rapid changes, as have its social and economic effects.
As Department officials work to advance U.S. government aims against this high-stakes, high-risk backdrop, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) prepared this report to share observations and lessons learned from past oversight work that could be applied to Ukraine response programs and operations. The seven issue areas identified in this brief are drawn from our work as well as the work of other federal oversight bodies. Discussion of the issues is informed by our observations from visits to Poland and the Ukraine border in July and September 2022. In each section of the brief, we discuss challenges observed in the Ukraine response and how similar challenges have manifested in previous settings and we present practices that can be employed to prevent or mitigate related problems.
1 This figure includes approximately 16,500 civilian casualties, including 6,500 killed and 10,000 injured; 100,000 Russian military casualties; and 100,000 Ukrainian military deaths. See United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), “Ukraine: Civilian Casualty Update, 7 November 2022;” Washington Post, “‘Well over’ 100,000 Russian troops killed or wounded in Ukraine, U.S. says,” November 10, 2022.
2 World Bank, Global Economic Prospects, June 2022, “Executive Summary,” pages xvii and xviii.
3 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, Public Law 117-103, Division N – Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022, March 15, 2022; Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022, Public Law 117-128, May 21, 2022; and Continuing Appropriations and Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023, Public Law 117-180, Division B, Title III, September 30, 2022.
4 New York Times, “President Biden: What the United States Will and Will Not Do in Ukraine,” May 31, 2021.