“NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is convinced that the Allies will find money to purchase American weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: Rutte at a press conference in Kyiv, “European Truth” reports
Details: Answering a question about how it is possible to collect the $15.5 billion requested by Ukraine to finance the PURL program, which is used for the purchase of weapons in the United States, Rutte assured that these funds will definitely be provided
“I am absolutely convinced that the money will be there, because we all know how critical it is,” he said.
The Secretary General, however, admitted that the problem of uneven funding by different countries has a negative impact on this: “Currently, two-thirds of the Allies participate in the PURL program, but there is indeed a problem of sharing the financial burden.”
According to him, the situation when some states help the Armed Forces in the purchase of American weapons, and some do not, is abnormal.
“Currently, there are individual states that are doing a lot, there are many that are doing something, and a smaller part is not doing anything. But really, we need a better distribution of funding, and we are working on it,” the Secretary General added.
He also noted individual nations that make a significant contribution to purchases under the PURL program – these are Canadians, Norwegians, Germans, as well as Swedes and the Baltic states.
We will remind that PURL is currently the only way to purchase air defense equipment in the USA, primarily interceptors for Patriot systems.
Rutte previously stated that 90% of the missiles are for Ukrainian air defense came through the PURL program.
Disruptions in supplies are a painful issue for Kyiv, in particular, Zelensky explained that he “ran into” Europe in Davos due to problems with missiles for air defense.
Mark Rutte is also asking the EU move away from the “buy European” rule regarding weapons for Ukraine.