Rutte: NATO to Find Money for US Weapons for Ukraine

Responding to a question of how the US$15.5 billion could be collected to finance the PURL program, which is used to buy weapons in the United States, Rutte promised that funds would be absolutely secure.

“I am absolutely convinced that the money will be found because we all know it's essential”, he said, broadcast Kankosova. tv 

The secretary general acknowledged, however, that unequivocal contributions from different countries are having a negative impact, namely, two-thirds of the allies are participating in the PURL programme and you're right, there's a problem with burden sharing”/ 

He said the situation in which some countries help Ukraine's Armed Forces buy American weapons, while others are not, is abnormal. For the moment, some allies are doing a lot, many allies are doing something and some are not doing anything. However, most are now involved in PURL.

“But we need a better division of the burden within NATO. We're working on it,” added Rutte. He also stressed individual countries that contribute significantly to procurement under the programme PURL, Canada, Norway and Germany respectively, as well as Sweden and the Baltic states.

PURL is currently the only channel for the purchase of air defence systems from the United States, mainly interceptive for Patriot systems. Previously, Rutte said 90% of Ukrainian air defence missiles were delivered through the PURL programme.

The supply cuts remain a difficult point for Kiev, and President Zelensky explained his harsh criticism of Europe in Davos precisely with missile problems for air defence systems. Mark Rutte also called on the EU to give up the <x0 European weapons> rule when it comes to weapons for Ukraine.