On Wednesday 15 October, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced that more than half of the Allies would be contributing to the PURL (Prioritised Urgent Request List) initiative, which makes it possible to finance American equipment for other Allies, which is then sent to Ukraine.
“Over half of Allies have signed up. We had six, originally, the Dutch, the Germans, the Canadians, the Swedes, the Norwegians and the Danes. Today, I can tell you, it’s over half of all Allies. And you know, there are 32 so there’s more than 16”, he announced at the end of the ministerial defence meeting. He later clarified that it was 16 or 17 nations.
On their arrival, several Ministers announced that their countries would participate in the initiative, including the Finnish Minister, Antti Häkkanen, who did not however specify the amount of the contribution. A few days ago, Estonia announced that it would contribute €10 million. Belgian Minister Theo Francken has announced a contribution of €100 million to PURL.
The German Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius, pointed out that “€3 billion remain to be booked by the Allies with PURL by the end of the year”.
According to the Ukrainian Defence Minister, Denys Shmyhal, PURL funding requirements for next year will be between $12 and $20 billion.
In addition to the PURL initiative, Boris Pistorius unveiled a new €2 billion support package for Ukraine. His Dutch counterpart, Ruben Brekelmans, has announced a further €90 million to support Ukraine with drones, including attack drones. “The most effective investment in our defence is to help Ukraine”, he added. The Estonian Minister, Hanno Pevkur, announced that his country would deliver “this week” “numerous drones worth several tens of millions of euros, in addition to what we have already supplied”.
The British Minister, John Healey, also pointed out that his country had delivered more than 85,000 drones in the last six months and signed new industrial partnerships to rapidly develop thousands of new interceptor drones capable of countering Russian attacks.
He said that “in the eight months since (the UK and Germany) took joint leadership of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, it has succeeded in securing pledges worth over £50 billion for military aid capabilities to Ukraine”. According to the Kiel Institute, European support fell in July and August.
Denys Shmyhal highlighted his country’s priorities for 2025 and 2026: drones and missiles, anti-missile and anti-drone systems, and finally long-range missiles, to be able to strike Russia in depth. According to him, Ukraine has already destroyed 20% of the refineries on Russian territory.
“In 2026, we will be able to build up to 10 million drones if our partners commit the necessary funding”, explained the Minister. The aim is to create a ‘drone wall’.
Mr Shmyhal said that his country’s defence needs for 2026 would be $120 billion, 60 billion of which would be covered by Kyiv, calling on its allies to cover the other half. “The most effective solution to meet this need is for our European and non-European partners to devote at least 0.25% of their GDP to military support for Ukraine”, he said, adding that the Europeans could also use a loan guaranteed by frozen Russian assets.
In September alone, more than 5,600 attack drones and more than 180 missiles were launched by Russia against Ukraine, according to the Minister. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)