Finland pledges to check US weapons make it to Ukraine
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Finland will check that American weapons brought by Europe will make it to Ukraine, as Washington considers diverting supplies to its war on Iran, the Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen told EuroNews on March 27.
Europe has grown increasingly worried that the U.S. is burning through all its stocks and won’t honor defense contracts signed with EU members to support Ukraine’s army via NATO’s Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) system.
This includes air defense interceptor missiles used to down Russian missiles and drones.
Finland and other NATO members are discussing with the U.S. what exactly will happen to the weapons produced under PURL.
"What has been promised to Ukraine must go to Ukraine. That is clear," Hakkanen said during the interview at the Defense Ministry in Helsinki.
"Every time we are assessing how the money is being spent, we trust that the mechanism is working. If there are problems of course, then we have to reassess that."
With the U.S. racing through high numbers of missiles, Hakkanen called upon Europe and its allies to ramp up stockpiles and defense industry capabilities.
However, he said that the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which began on Feb. 28, was not a NATO or European war.
The reports of Washington diverting supplies, first reported by the Washington Post, has alarmed Kyiv, a Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent on March 26.
In response to the reports, NATO Spokesperson Alison Hart told European Pravda that "everything that NATO allies and partners paid for through PURL has been delivered or continues to be delivered to Ukraine."
When asked by reporters about the potential changes to weapons shipments, U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to brush off speculation about potential redirections.
"We do that all the time. We have tremendous amounts of ammunition... and sometimes we take from one (country) and use it for another," Trump told reporters following a cabinet meeting on March 26.
