More arms purchases for Ukraine under NATO-led PURL initiative on the way, US ambassador says
More vital military aid for Ukraine will soon be pledged under the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), a NATO initiative to purchase U.S. equipment and ammunition, Washington's ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said on Feb. 10.
Signed by the U.S. and NATO in July, the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) agreement lays out a mechanism for NATO member states and partners to purchase high-priority equipment for Ukraine.
Twenty-four countries, including two non-NATO member states Australia and New Zealand, have so far joined the initiative.
Some $4.5 billion in military aid has already been pledged to Ukraine through the scheme, Whitaker told journalists, as cited by Reuters.
Three European nations — Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands — have contributed the most to the program, the ambassador added.
The first shipment of arms for Ukraine purchased under the PURL initiative arrived in September 2025, two months after the agreement was announced in Washington by U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Since the incoming Trump administration ended the large-scale funding and delivery of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, Kyiv has had to rely mostly on European support and its own domestic defense industry to stay in the fight on the battlefield.
Some U.S.-made systems cannot be replaced with a European or homemade equivalent like the interceptors for the advanced Patriot surface-to-air missile system, which remains the only air defense asset capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.
In a visit to Kyiv in early February, Rutte said that 90% of the missiles used for air defense since summer 2025 had been supplied to Ukraine.
As Russia's all-out long-range strike campaign against Ukrainian energy and heating infrastructure continues, the missiles are nonetheless in short supply, with the country's air force reporting that over January, several key Western-made systems had completely run out of missiles.
