Dutch Defense Minister urges more countries to join PURL

Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans has called on other nations to join the PURL initiative, noting that the contributions from Northern European countries alone are not enough to meet Ukraine’s defense needs.

He said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

Brekelmans emphasized that the Netherlands was the first country to fund one of the PURL packages, recognizing how urgent and important this effort is for Ukraine. He explained that the mechanism allows for the procurement of munitions and systems from the United States that are otherwise unavailable elsewhere — such as Patriot missiles.

“We also consciously wanted to encourage others to invest. It is still my message to other countries. We have seen some Northern European countries, but more is needed because Ukraine still urgently requires more air defense missiles and other types of ammunition and weapon systems,” the Dutch defense minister said.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha announced on Monday that seven more countries intend to join the PURL program with specific contributions.