NATO allies must fund the PURL initiative at a level of about $1 billion per month so that Ukraine can reliably receive American weapons. The press service of the Ministry of Defense reported this.
Funding requirements
Regular contributions from all partners and reaching a target level — roughly $1 billion per month — are necessary for stable weapons deliveries. Therefore it is important to involve as many countries as possible so that the diverse needs of the front are fully met.
Current status
Partners have announced about $3.12 billion for the PURL initiative. The program started three months and 20 days ago, so on average it comes out to less than a billion — about $850 million per month.
However, aid has arrived unevenly. According to the Ministry of Defense, almost two-thirds of the $3.12 billion were announced in the first month of the program.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said as early as late August that there was a need for at least $1 billion per month from partners to fund PURL.
Benefits of the initiative
PURL has significantly reduced the time between the decision and the actual receipt of weapons. Ukraine has also gained access to American weapons that have no equivalents among European manufacturers and are critically important for the Defense Forces.
The detailed list of packages is not disclosed due to restricted-access information. However, the mechanism provides critical items of air and missile defense, artillery ammunition, rocket rounds, armored vehicles and other priority positions.
Problems with implementation
At the end of September, Deputy Minister of Defense Dmytro Havryliuk reported that under PURL Ukraine was receiving American weapons more slowly and in smaller volumes than when they were provided directly from U.S. stocks under the PDA program.
In mid-October, the head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, acknowledged delays in the PURL scheme.
Context
In early November, Axios, citing State Department data, reported that due to a U.S. government shutdown the export of American weapons worth more than $5 billion for allies and Ukraine was delayed. At the same time, an Alliance official said that PURL implementation was proceeding without pauses.
