U.S. allies in Europe are increasingly concerned about a signature Trump administration program to arm Ukraine, as the Iran war depletes American stocks and some countries question how the Pentagon is spending the funds, according to 10 diplomats, officials and congressional aides.
A key issue is the lengthy delays in American weapons sales caused by the war in Iran, where the U.S. military has rapidly burned through its stores of precision weaponry during the joint campaign with Israel.
The Trump administration has not diverted equipment pledged to Ukraine since launching the attack on Iran, officials said. But European officials are growing concerned that U.S. weapons shortages, which are already impacting their own orders, could also lead to delays for Ukraine.
Europeans nations, Ukraine’s chief backers, purchase U.S. arms for Kyiv under an initiative called the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), which was brokered by NATO last summer. The deal was intended to ensure the flow of weaponry that only the Pentagon could provide — such as air defense interceptors to shield Ukrainian cities from Russian strikes.
It also offered a political win to President Donald Trump, who has pledged not to spend U.S. taxpayer money on Ukraine.
But in recent months, some European capitals have grown more skeptical about the program, with some even hesitant to pledge new funds, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private concerns.
“Europeans are hesitating because there’s growing mistrust and lack of certainty on what will happen with money” as the Iran war drags on, one European official said. “There have been contributions [to PURL] but not too many.”
The Ukrainian president’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration for the past year has also pressured European capitals to buy U.S. weapons for their own defenses as NATO countries rush to increase military spending. But faced with diminished Pentagon stockpiles, allies from Europe to East Asia now expect to wait years to receive equipment they already purchased, the people said.
The concerns about weapons deliveries have mounted as a rift deepens between Washington and its longtime European allies. Trump has berated European leaders for hesitating to endorse the U.S. war against Iran that is convulsing the Middle East and straining the global economy. This month, following German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s comments that Washington was being “humiliated” by Tehran, the Pentagon announced it would withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany.
Trump has suggested that more reductions could come, including in Spain and Italy.
While the Pentagon has weighed rerouting orders to the Middle East, a senior Pentagon and NATO official reassured a gathering of Kyiv’s backers in April that deliveries to Ukraine through PURL would “continue as planned,” according to two European officials.
In response to questions, NATO did not comment on concerns about PURL funds.
A NATO official said nations have allocated over $5.5 billion to the initiative. The official said allies “continue to contribute to PURL,” including recent pledges from Norway and Canada, adding that urgently needed U.S. weaponry paid for by allies continues to flow into Ukraine and “make a real difference on the battlefield.”
The sense of distrust around PURL has grown as participant countries have raised questions about how the Pentagon is using some of the funds. The Washington Post reported in March that the Pentagon had notified Congress it planned to use $750 million provided through PURL to restock U.S. inventories. That sum would help backfill equipment provided to Ukraine during the Biden administration, rather than send additional assistance, multiple officials said.
Officials on both sides of the Atlantic questioned whether using the money this way violated the expectations of the Europeans that all their funds would go to Kyiv.
“This is a program that should be one for one: a dollar in, a dollar of new capabilities out to Europe,” a Senate aide said.
A senior Pentagon official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under terms set by the Defense Department, did not dispute that the administration had used some of the funding to refill its own stocks. The official, though, framed the conversations about supporting Ukraine with NATO allies as “an invitation for Europe to grow its industrial capacity.”
Several officials, including some critical of the arrangement, acknowledged that PURL has helped provide valuable U.S. weaponry to Ukraine in the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Several European diplomats also signaled that their countries continue to support the initiative, which received funds from allies including Germany, the Netherlands and Estonia. Others such as France and Italy have instead supplied direct aid and European weapons to Ukraine separately from PURL.
The list of weapons and capabilities available for purchase through the program, the Pentagon official said, is coordinated with Ukraine, U.S. European Command and senior leaders inside the Defense Department, who assess the potential risks to America’s own military readiness. That list includes weaponry coming off production lines in the U.S. defense industry and equipment already in the military’s inventories.
“The point is that these decisions can be made in an informed, deliberate manner,” said the Pentagon official. “That is what this process enables.”
The Pentagon declined to comment on specific capabilities being made available through the program.
Still, the equipment being provided through PURL falls short of the highest-end capabilities that Kyiv has requested, multiple people said.
Ukraine is almost completely out of PAC-3 interceptors for the Patriot air defense system, save for a scarce few rationed around the country, officials said. Earlier this year, the Trump administration pushed several European countries to send Ukraine their own stores of Patriot missiles, though some declined due to concerns that doing so would hobble their own defenses, two people familiar with the private discussions said.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in April that new funds pledged to PURL were “extremely important” to help procure interceptors. “Please also have a look at your stocks. We need more PAC-2 and PAC-3 to build up a stockpile for the winter,” he added.
NATO said PURL has supplied most of the missiles for Ukraine’s Patriot batteries — including PAC-3 — and the ammunition for other air defense systems.
The Pentagon official confirmed that multiple allies contacted the Defense Department to confirm that contributions to PURL were not being diverted to support U.S. military operations in the Middle East.
“We basically ran the traps and were able to confirm to Congress that we are very, very strictly operating [within] the bounds of statute, which does provide latitude to backfill stocks that are sent to Ukraine,” the Pentagon official said.
Another European diplomat said the questions about PURL have influenced ongoing debate among Europeans about how much American weaponry they should buy. “It makes it harder to advocate for keeping the door open to U.S. weapons,” as Europe mobilizes funds to rearm, the diplomat said.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has faced scrutiny from lawmakers in both parties in recent weeks who pressed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to explain why the administration hasn’t spent the $400 million Congress passed this year for a separate program that supplies Ukraine with American-built weaponry.
Under questioning from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) at a late-April hearing, Hegseth did not commit to using the money as Congress had intended.
“Ultimately Europe pays for any weapons that we provide,” Hegseth said.
David L. Stern and Anastacia Galouchka contributed to this report.
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