The Army general in charge of U.S. assistance to Ukraine in 2024 left classified maps marked “SECRET” describing the war in Ukraine on a train, a Pentagon watchdog found.
In a report issued last week, the Defense Department inspector general found Major General Antonio Aguto, who oversaw U.S. military support for Ukraine from Dec. 2022 to Sept. 2024, in separate incidents improperly handled classified documents and engaged in the “overindulgence of alcohol.”
In April 2024, Aguto misplaced a 1.5 to 3 feet tube of maps that were classified as “SECRET” after returning to Germany from a visit to Ukraine. The report says he realized he misplaced the tube either that night or the morning after and notified the U.S. embassy in Ukraine.
Aguto and his team had traveled from Kyiv to Poland on a train the State Department had established in 2022 with Ukrainian railways to provide transportation for U.S. personnel, not for other public use. After hearing the documents were missing, the Ukrainian director of train security found the tube on the train and dispatched a Ukrainian to deliver it to the embassy.
In response to the inspector general’s findings, Aguto said there is no indication classified information was compromised. The watchdog still found him at fault and wrote in the report, “those documents were left on the train, unsecured, and later recovered by Ukrainian nationals.”
In a separate May 2024 incident, Aguto suffered a concussion from a fall after drinking that incapacitated him for meetings, including one with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The evening before the meetings, Aguto went out to dinner in Kyiv just after 5:00 p.m. and didn’t return until after 11:00 p.m. At around 10:00 p.m., an aide setting up his communications equipment asked the aide with Aguto how long they’d be, and the aide texted, “We are still going strong… I don’t think he is going to check anything. Have it ready but he’s too drunk.”
Once he returned to his room, Aguto suddenly “lost his balance” and fell backward, according to one of the witnesses, striking the back of his head on the wall. He fell two more times over the course of the next 24 hours and was acting “slow” enough to warrant medical consultations.
Aguto had a CT scan and an EKG at the local hospital and received a concussion diagnosis.
While the inspector general did not substantiate allegations that Aguto was drunk on the job, the report did conclude that Aguto was unable to perform his duties because of a concussion caused by the series of falls that began with the one in his hotel room after an “overindulgence in alcohol.”
Around the time of the incidents, the U.S. had committed $50.6 billion worth of security assistance to Ukraine, according to a fact sheet released by the Pentagon on May 10, 2024.
The inspector general recommended the Secretary of the Army take appropriate action with respect to Sguto in light of the “substantiated misconduct” described in the report.