US Secretary of State Marco Rubio: No Changes to Ukraine's PURL Program

STOCKHOLM, May 22. /TASS/. The US is not making any changes to its PURL program, which was created to supply weapons to Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated.

"Ukraine is getting more support than they ever have [had] through the PURL program. The US continues to be involved. There have been no changes made to that program," he told reporters on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Sweden.

Meanwhile, according to a May 11 report by The Washington Post, US’ European allies are increasingly concerned about the progress of this initiative aimed at arming Kiev, given the depletion of American arsenals during the war with Iran. In addition, some European countries are questioning how the Pentagon is spending these funds. According to the newspaper's sources, there are concerns across the Atlantic that the shortage of American weapons, which is already affecting exports to Europe, could also lead to delays in deliveries to Ukraine.

The article noted that Europe has invested over $5.5 billion in the PURL program to date. However, Washington intends to use approximately $750 million of that amount to replenish its own arsenals. In addition, the weapons supplied under the initiative do not constitute the most advanced munitions requested by Kiev, the Washington Post noted. In this regard, it confirmed that Ukraine had almost completely exhausted its supply of PAC-3 interceptor missiles for the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 air and missile defense system.

Under the PURL initiative, European NATO countries have effectively committed to purchasing weapons from the US with their own funds for transfer to Kiev at no cost.