FACT-CHECK: Did Secretary Hegseth Just Fib to Congress About Ukraine and Russia?

There was a lot of inaccurate information. At a few points, the US Defense Secretary seemed in felony violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, the law mandating honest testimony to Congress. Make us preferred on Google Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on April 8, 2026.(Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) Content Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied Flip Make us preferred on Google During testimony before Congress defending a whopping and record-large $1.5 trillion funding request for America’s military in 2027, a combative Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, spoke on Ukraine and Russia mostly in passing. But almost all of what he did say was veritably wrong, and parts of his statements to Congress bordered on false testimony to a federal agency. Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official . A transcript and full-length video of the testimony by Hegseth, along with Chairman of Joint Chiefs General John Caine, as witnesses in budget hearings of the House Armed Services Committee, is here .Hegseth’s most verifiable departure from the truth came in two exchanges, one at the 48th minute of the nearly six-hour hearing, when Hegseth fielded a lawmaker’s question about Trump administration policy towards Ukraine. Representative Adam Smith (D-Washington state): “A year ago, you said Ukraine had no cards and needed to make a deal. Clearly, that turned out to be untrue. What did you miss? Didn’t you see what Ukraine was capable of in the last 14 months? Hegseth : “ What we didn’t miss, and we’re here in this committee, is that [former US President Joe Biden], with no accountability, gave hundreds of billions of dollars of our weapons to Ukraine. To an outcome that never would have happened if [US President Donald Trump] was president. So, he pulled out our…you guys don’t talk about that. Ultimately, President Trump believes that there should be a peace deal, ah, between Russia and Ukraine, that serves the best interests of both parties.” Other Topics of Interest Civilian Solutions for Army? Latvian Army Commander on What NATO Can Learn From Ukraine Gen. Kaspars Pudāns, commander of the Latvian Armed Forces, touched on the threats from Belarus, Russian influence in the Baltics, and lessons from Ukraine in his exclusive interview with Kyiv Post. In comment a few minutes later the Secretary said: Hegseth: “I think the Ukrainians have shown, uh, great courage, and I appreciate that, uh, that Europe is now paying for the weap…any weapons that we provide.” At about two hours and 40 minutes into the hearing, Hegseth offered more detail on his and the Pentagon’s estimate of the scale of total US support to Ukraine. Representative Rep. Carlos A. Giménez (R-FL): A couple final questions. You know how much money we spent on Ukraine? Helping Ukraine? Hegseth: Under the previous administration? This is not true. In fact, the Biden administration had an accounting system in place, and it worked. There were gaps and questions identified, and the oversight system’s own review documented them.During the Biden administration, the main US oversight mechanism for arms sent to Ukraine was via a mechanism called Enhanced End-Use Monitoring (EEUM). This mechanism used researchers, data processing, and selected on-site spot visits to track high-value items sent to Ukraine – for instance, Javelin anti-tank missiles or HIMARS rocket artillery systems, by serial number. More than 400 people in the US/Europe/Ukraine analyzed inventories, while members of the Security Assistance Group-Ukraine (SAG-U) performed on-ground checks. Findings published by EEUM in 2022 found the tracking system to be inadequate and declared an audit of it a failure. Findings published in 2023 and 2024 found that generally, the equipment was likely getting to the end user, but that accounting for it was still spotty. Specifically, not all systems were tracked, some documentation was missing, and the purpose of some outlays wasn’t fully clear. The last review findings are here .Ukrainian officials, led by President Volodymyr Zelensky, have, for years, insisted the status of US weaponry in Ukraine’s armed forces is tracked rigorously down to the individual weapon, because it is a matter of Ukrainian national security. Following the 2023 and 2024 audits finding gaps in US weapons tracking, Zelensky said the problem was that the White House, on “security” grounds, wasn’t allowing US inspectors to visit frontline Ukrainian units operating US weapons.As a result, EEUM was counting a US system unchecked because it was too close to battle lines for a US inspector to visit, as possibly missing, he said. This is not true and contradicted by both US government official records, as well as Ukrainian government records and independent research. The actual number is about $65-$75 billion, depending on when one stops totaling figures and how one defines “arms” and “assistance.” According to Hegseth’s own Department of Defense , aggregate totals of all US military assistance to Ukraine as of late 2025 were about $66.9 billion. According to the US State Department, as of the end of 2025, the US had allocated a total $187 billion towards security in Eastern Europe, of which about $33 billion had gone to arms purchased for Ukraine or to replenishment of US stocks for arms donated to Ukraine. In addition to that, a portion of $31 billion had delivered arms to Ukraine by purchasing arms held by other states and transferring them to Ukraine. In aggregate, this assistance is about $64 billion. According to the gold standard, the independent Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker, as of March 1, 2026, total US military assistance to Ukraine since the outset of Russia’s second invasion was the equivalent of $75.3 billion. The bipartisan, US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in a late February 2026 estimate put the total value of US military aid “committed” to Ukraine at $75.9 billion, of $77.1 billion promised. Per all four of those sources just quoted, this isn’t close to true. Official US government figures (SIGAR-OAR/Ukraine Oversight), total US assistance to Ukraine from February 2022 to April 2026 has been between $183-$188 billion in total, with $130-$175 billion actually disbursed/allocated. This was both military and financial assistance, of all types. The gap between money disbursed, allocated, and actually delivered is between $60-$80 billion. This means the value of actual American physical assistance that has actually reached Ukraine, to date, is probably $70-$120 billion – or about one-third of Hegseth’s testimony to Congress. This is not true. More than just European states are paying to buy US weapons for Ukraine, with each individual purchase agreed with and approved by Hegseth’s Pentagon. The mechanism by which third-party states purchase US weapons for Ukraine is called PURL (Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List). It is a NATO/US-led initiative launched in 2025. NATO member Canada, which, as Hegseth and the Pentagon are aware, is located in North America, not Europe, is an active PURL contributor, having donated about $500 million to date. Non-NATO members Australia and New Zealand, both Oceanic states arguably as far away from Europe as it is possible to get, and still be on Earth, are also PURL contributors, with Australian taxpayers having donated by the end of 2025 about $33 million in US weapons bought for Ukraine, and New Zealand’s around $8.7 million. Hegseth: Well, we have seen Russia’s and present’s in – Putin’s inability to make battlefield gains, just like their inability to defend the Maduro regime, which was defeated in 15 minutes. Russia’s military capabilities are no match for ours. Carbajal: Easing the sanctions is helping Russia? Hegseth: We have the best energy team in the planet. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization since 1995. Its international market reach of 97% outside of Ukraine makes it truly Ukraine’s Global – and most reliable – Voice.