Zelenskyy Urges Europe to Speed Up Air Defense Deliveries Amid Funding Shortfalls

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday urged European countries to step up deliveries of critical air defenses, as funding pledges from a key NATO-backed program fall behind schedule.

“Ballistic missiles are Russia's last argument in this war against Ukraine, and we must find a sufficient response to them,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv, so it “would help greatly for our partners to focus particularly on protection against ballistic missiles.”

Kyiv has repeatedly asked NATO allies to provide it with critical U.S.-made Patriot interceptors that can destroy Russian ballistic missiles. The latest request comes one day after a wave of Russian drones and missiles killed 12 people in Ukraine's capital.

EU countries have agreed to a €90 billion loan to support Ukraine until 2027. NATO allies in February also pledged $35 billion to help shore up Kyiv’s air defenses — with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius suggesting that could include 35 Patriot PAC-3 missiles.

But Zelenskyy warned the issue was “no longer about financing” alone, telling reporters that the quantity of deliveries had “decreased rapidly” after the U.S. war in Iran, which has put a severe strain on global stockpiles of the critical weapons.

Instead, the Ukrainian president said he had reached a deal with “several countries” to take over their place in line for Patriot missiles from the U.S. “But you can only take that place in the queue if you have paid for the contract — and we have to pay,” he said.

Zelenskyy, who was joined on Wednesday in Kyiv by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte for an unannounced visit, also said six countries had agreed to new contributions for NATO’s U.S. arms-buying program, the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List.

Still, Zelenskyy said “the pace of deliveries through PURL and the volume of those deliveries are not sufficient,” adding he had discussed “additional steps” with Rutte.

Rutte said that the U.S. was “doing what it can in terms of delivering PAC-3 and PAC-2 Patriot missiles to Ukraine,” referring to the interceptors fired by the Patriot system.

PURL was set up last summer after U.S. President Donald Trump ended new military aid commitments to Kyiv, and Rutte has been raising money for the initiative from donor countries.

The NATO leader said Ukraine’s partners had pledged nearly $6 billion through the scheme. However, last year, allies pledged $5 billion, suggesting NATO has only finalized $1 billion in additional cash during the first five months of 2026 — far below the $12 billion goal Rutte had set for this year.

Inside NATO, officials insist that countries have already agreed to donate more, but these are awaiting final approval to be announced as formal packages. While “we are a little bit behind” on contributions, allies have committed “millions” more than Rutte can announce publicly, said a person familiar with the matter, who was granted anonymity to speak freely.

An alliance official speaking on behalf of the organization told POLITICO: “The Secretary General was clear that support to Ukraine through PURL will continue, so we should expect more pledges in the near future.”

The funding debate comes as the alliance scrambles to present a concrete funding pledge to reassure Kyiv ahead of the July summit of NATO leaders where Zelenskyy will attend on the sidelines.

Allies previously rejected a proposal by Rutte to earmark 0.25 percent of their GDP to Ukraine. They are now mulling a German proposal to increase the transparency of contributions paired with an as-yet undefined absolute funding target, according to three NATO diplomats.