CBS partially retracts documentary that outraged Ukraine by claiming that US weapon shipments were going missing

Ukrainian soldiers man a howitzer during artillery drills in northeastern Ukraine's Kharkiv region, June 14, 2021. Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images

• CBS said it was updating a documentary that said most weapons sent to Ukraine don't reach the front.
• It admitted that a figure it cited claiming only 30% of military aid arrives was out of date.
• The documentary angered some in the Ukrainian government. CBS said it was adding "new information."

CBS partially retracted a documentary in which it said that shipments of weapons to Ukraine from the US had been going missing.

CBS tweeted on Monday that it had removed a a video promoting the documentary that included a months-old quote saying most aid was not making it to Ukraine's front lines.

It said it was updating the documentary, called "Arming Ukraine," with "new information" about the delivery of military aid to Ukraine.

Among the material removed was a quote the founder of pro-Ukraine nonprofit Blue-Yellow, Jonas Ohman, who said in late April that only around 30% of aid was reaching the front lines in Ukraine.

CBS said that "Since that time, Ohman says delivery has improved." It also noted that the US had sent an official —  Brigadier General Garrick M. Harmon — to Kyiv specifically to monitor the use of military aid.

"We are updating our documentary to reflect this new information and air at a later date," CBS said.

CBS also updated an article accompanying the documentary.

The US and other nations have sent Ukraine vast quantities of weapons since Russia invaded on February 24.

Ukraine has repeatedly described the aid as a gamechanger in its defense, recently highlighting the US gift of HIMARS long-range artillery as a crucial tool.

CBS noted that allied countries send weapons to the Ukrainian border with Poland, where they are taken hundreds of miles east to the frontlines.

The moving front and the need to rely partly on volunteers to transport the weapons "has made delivery of the military aid difficult for those attempting to navigate the dangerous supply lines to their destination," CBS reported.

Ukraine's Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security argued against the claims of the documentary.

—Stratcom Centre UA (@StratcomCentre) August 5, 2022

It described a series of oversight measures which it said help keep track of donated weaponry, including a system also used by the US military.

It noted that CBS did not initially ask Harmon, the US senior officer, to comment.

"Ukraine has officially invited representatives of its partners to monitor the use of weapons, striving to ensure maximum transparency," it said.

Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, seemed to respond to the documentary on Sunday in a tweet that said Russia was trying to discredit Ukraine with "allegations" about where its weapons are ending up.

Russia state-media outlets, including RIA Novosti and Channel One, had prominently covered CBS's claims after they aired.

Podolyak said the location of all weapons given to Ukraine was known: "This a war live where everything is seen: total accounting and control. "