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Following the “Ramstein” format meeting, which took place with the participation of U.S. Secretary Pete Hegseth, Ukraine received commitments from 17 NATO member states to join the financing of the PURL program.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced this at a joint briefing with Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal.
Rutte assured that NATO’s priority is “to support Ukraine’s ability to fight and to be as strong as possible.” He also expressed satisfaction that the United States has renewed its decision to supply Ukraine with military equipment and ammunition under the PURL initiative — meaning with European financing.
The Secretary General noted that during the day, the number of countries ready to fund this initiative had almost tripled.
“At the beginning of the day, six member states of the Alliance had commitments under PURL: the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. But after today’s meeting, we have more than half of all Alliance members — 17 states — that have taken on PURL commitments,” he said. Rutte did not specify the full list of countries that joined.
As is known, NATO has 32 members — meaning that 17 is indeed more than half.
This also means that 11 additional states have joined PURL, exceeding expectations: earlier, it was reported that seven NATO countries were expected to announce their participation.
The meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group was held with the personal participation of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. It was the first session since February in which Hegseth participated in person. Previously, he either ignored the meetings or joined only those held via video link.
At the meeting, a U.S. government representative stated that the expansion of the initiative to purchase weapons from the United States for Ukraine is “an incredible signal.”
Read also: NATO now publicly acknowledges that Ukraine must have a role in the Alliance’s collective security
