Norway, Sweden, and Denmark pledged to provide $500 million to an effort aiming to provide U.S.-made weapons to Ukraine. The countries are the first to finance the military package under the Prioritized Ukraine Requirement List (PURL) initiative.
Norway is to provide $135 million, Sweden will contribute $275 million, and Denmark will provide $90 million for the effort. Danish Minister of Defence Troels Lund Poulsen said the country “fully supports the new American initiative,” while Swedish Minister for Defence Pal Jonson called the collective effort a “strength.”
“This is an important initiative from NATO and the USA,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said in a statement. “It helps ensure that Ukraine quickly receives crucial military equipment to defend themselves, and it strengthens cooperation between the United States and European countries in their support of Ukraine.”
The effort comes as the United States and NATO launched an initiative in July that sees NATO countries financing American defence materials for Ukrainian use. The initiative will “strengthen Ukrainian air defence, as it includes the delivery of munitions for Patriot air defence systems as well as other urgent requirements,” the Norwegian statement read.
President Trump told NBC News last month that the United States is “sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%. So what we’re doing is the weapons that are going out are going to NATO, and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons [to Ukraine], and NATO is paying for those weapons.”
“We send weapons to NATO, and NATO is going to reimburse the full cost of those weapons,” he explained.
