BRUSSELS — A majority of NATO members on Wednesday said they were ready to cough up for a scheme spearheaded by Donald Trump that uses allied money to buy U.S. weapons for Ukraine.
In July, the U.S. president said Washington was ready to free up stocks of critical weaponry desperately needed by Ukraine as long as NATO allies pay for them under a scheme called the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List.
Under Trump’s presidency the focus is to sell weapons to Ukraine rather than donate them as under previous President Joe Biden.
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands have pledged $2 billion in four separate PURL packages. And on Wednesday, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Finland among others were poised to finalize a fifth package, according to three NATO diplomats, who like others quoted in this story were granted anonymity to speak freely.
“Thanks to funding from allies, we are providing Ukraine with critical U.S. equipment,” NATO chief Mark Rutte said as alliance defense ministers met in Brussels. “And today, we heard from ally after ally about new contributions.”
But that growing support is also leaving those who haven’t contributed — such as the U.K. and France — in an increasingly tight spot.
In total, 20 NATO allies have now pledged support for the scheme, Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson told POLITICO.
Now, however, “there are expectations there should be fair burden sharing, and those who haven’t committed themselves need to do it.” he said. Relying exclusively on existing donor countries for more cash “is unsustainable in the long run,” he added.
“Fair burden sharing is something we [have] all been waiting [for],” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur told POLITICO, “and as was said many times today … helping Ukraine today is a security guarantee also for us.”
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Denys Schmyhal warned that Kyiv’s needs under PURL “next year range from $12 billion and $20 billion.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously been skeptical of American military aid for Ukraine — mirroring Trump’s stance — but in Brussels lauded the PURL effort, telling allies their “continued investment and leadership are vital to helping Ukraine defend itself and to bring an end to this conflict.”
PURL means directly pulling arms from U.S. stockpiles and using European money to replace them, said one U.S. defense official, as well as putting other weapons and equipment on contract for later deliveries.
But Washington wants more. “Our expectation today is that more countries donate even more, that they purchase even more to provide for Ukraine, to bring that conflict to a peaceful conclusion,” Hegseth said.
PURL “is only sustainable if countries indeed give support,” added a senior NATO diplomat. “So for [those] countries: Put your money where your mouth is.”
That pressure is already having an effect. Spain, which sparked outrage among allies by refusing to support NATO’s increased spending targets at a leaders’ summit in June, has now left the door open to joining PURL.
“Spain will always be part of the solution to the problems,” Defense Minister Margarita Robles said as she left Wednesday’s summit.
For some countries like the U.K., the problem “could be” budgetary, said Ed Arnold, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, given its otherwise strong military aid for Ukraine. For others like France, he argued, “it’s likely political” — given the country’s historical reluctance to spend money on U.S. equipment.
An effort is afoot to fix that by funneling seized Russian assets toward the weapons scheme — with allies like the U.K., Estonia and Sweden backing that approach. Currently, EU countries are debating using Russian assets to fund a €140 billion reparations loan to Ukraine — an issue set to be tackled at an EU leaders’ summit next week.
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