The United States plans to ask its NATO allies to increase funding for a key program supplying weapons to Ukraine. Bloomberg reported this, citing sources familiar with the matter, noting that it indicates U.S. defense support for Ukraine is continuing, UNN writes.
Details
According to the sources, "a request for increased funding under NATO's PURL could come as early as this month."
They said that "the U.S. has already signaled to some allies that it will ask for money." It was not immediately clear how much money the U.S. is seeking, but the sources said that "there is a funding shortfall of about $2 billion for weapons packages that have already been approved."
They said that "the U.S. continues to supply weapons even before allies have provided the money to pay for them, and the shortfall could grow if the Pentagon decides to make more deliveries."
The PURL initiative is a cornerstone of NATO's efforts to strengthen Ukraine's defense, allowing allies to pay for U.S. weapons that are then sent to Ukraine. Previous deliveries have included critical air defense systems and other military equipment.
"The new financial push indicates that the Pentagon has not allowed the heated rhetoric between Washington and Kyiv to interfere with the crucial role that U.S. defense companies play in supplying weapons to Ukraine," the publication notes. "The U.S. has even continued weapons deliveries to Ukraine when allied funding lagged behind the pace of U.S. deliveries," the sources said.
"The gap between defense assistance and Trump's comments has created confusion among U.S. allies and at times made it more difficult to persuade allies to pay for new weapons, especially as Europeans are becoming cautious about financing a war that has been ongoing for a fifth year," some sources said. Several key European countries, including Spain, France, and Italy, are also holding elections this year or next.
"Last month, the U.S. threatened to halt PURL deliveries in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russia's energy infrastructure," according to people familiar with the matter. "The threat was not carried out, and the program continued to operate," the sources said.
Separately from the PURL initiative, the U.S. State Department on Friday approved the sale of Patriot missiles to Ukraine worth $2.1 billion, paid for with donations from Canada, Germany, Norway, and the European Union. Such sales, the publication notes, typically take years from approval to the delivery of the weapons.