NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is confident that the allies will find the funds to purchase American weapons for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, he said today at a press conference in Kiev.
Responding to a question about how the 15.5 billion US dollars requested by Ukraine to finance the PURL program, which is used to purchase weapons in the United States, could be raised, Rutte promised that the funds would definitely be provided.
“I am absolutely convinced that the money will be found because we all know it is essential,” he said, reports ukrainska pravda.
The Secretary-General acknowledged, however, that unequal contributions from different countries were having a negative impact. “Currently, two-thirds of Allies are participating in the PURL program and you are right, there is a problem with burden sharing.”
He said that the situation in which some countries help the Ukrainian Armed Forces buy American weapons, while others do not, is abnormal. “At the moment, some allies are doing a lot, many allies are doing something, and some are doing nothing. However, most are now involved in PURL.
“But we need better burden-sharing within NATO. We are working on that,” Rutte added. He also highlighted individual countries that contribute significantly to procurement under the PURL program, namely Canada, Norway and Germany, as well as Sweden and the Baltic states.
PURL is currently the only channel for the purchase of air defense systems from the United States, mainly interceptors for Patriot systems. Earlier, Rutte stated that 90% of Ukrainian air defense missiles were delivered through the PURL program.
Supply disruptions remain a sticking point for Kiev, and President Zelenskyy explained his harsh criticism of Europe in Davos precisely with the problems with missiles for air defense systems. Mark Rutte also called on the EU to abandon the “buy European weapons” rule when it comes to weapons for Ukraine.
