Europe and Canada will purchase weapons from the U.S. for Ukraine this year worth €4.3 billion - Rutte 0 10

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte expressed confidence on Wednesday that Ukraine's allies will allocate $5 billion (€4.3 billion) by the end of the year for the purchase of American-made weapons to ensure continuous supplies to Kyiv after Washington froze military funding for the war-torn country.

According to Rutte, allies have already pledged billions for military purchases in the U.S. under the 'Ukraine Priority Needs List' (PURL) initiative, through which NATO coordinates the procurement of necessary equipment for Kyiv from U.S. stockpiles.

The program was launched in July after the Trump administration announced its intention to sharply reduce its own supplies of lethal and non-lethal military equipment to Ukraine. More than 20 allies have already contributed.

This week, five allies announced new expenditures, including Canada (€171 million), the Netherlands (€214 million), as well as Norway, Poland, and Germany, which together allocated a total of €429 million.

In recent days, Australia and New Zealand have also pledged to participate in the program, despite not being members of the alliance.

'This latest round of commitments puts us on track for $5 billion for the entire year,' Rutte told reporters after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

He added that the list of participating allies seems likely to grow, and that now, five months after the program's launch, 'only a handful of countries' have yet to make commitments through PURL.

These include Italy and France, the latter of which prefers to donate European-made equipment.

But this is causing growing discontent among some participating countries.

Upon arriving at the NATO meeting, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys stated, 'We must share the burden.'

'We cannot continue as we are, on the shoulders of the Northern European, Baltic, German, Polish, and some other countries,' he added.

Estimates suggest that Ukraine will need at least €83 billion to finance military needs over the next two years. Europeans, who have so far been the largest donors of military and macro-financial support to Ukraine, are expected to bear the brunt of this burden.

According to Rutte, he expects that by the end of 2026, the volume of PURL commitments will reach $1 billion per month.

'Next year, we will again need a lot of money for the entire year,' he said earlier the same day. 'At least $1 billion, maybe even a little more than $1 billion a month. This could be around $15 billion, maybe a little more for the whole year.'