PARIS — The Nordic and Baltic countries are teaming up to pay for a $500 million United States military support package of weapons and munitions for Ukraine, they said on Thursday.
Norway will contribute the lion’s share at 2 billion Norwegian kroner, or about $200 million, while Sweden will provide $60 million and Denmark around 400 million Danish kroner ($53 million) in funding, the countries said in separate statements.
U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in July announced a financial arrangement called the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List to provide military aid to Ukraine. Through the initiative, NATO allies excluding the U.S. pool funds to pay for $500-million batches of American weapons, munitions and equipment requested by the embattled country.
“This will help Ukraine get high-priority military equipment quickly,” Norway’s Defence Minister Tore O. Sandvik said in a statement. “The feedback I have received from the Ukrainians is that PURL delivers on time and that they are satisfied with the content of the military aid packages.”
Trump said on Tuesday the U.S. is no longer spending any money on Ukraine, “now they pay us through NATO.”
The Nordic-Baltic Eight countries – Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia – published a joint statement on Thursday saying they’ll maintain long-term military aid for Ukraine, with the $500 million PURL package a demonstration of their support.
“Russia’s war of aggression is a long-term threat to European security, the transatlantic community and the rules-based international order,” the joint statement said. “We will not allow it to succeed. Ukraine’s security is directly connected to ours.”
The package paid for by the Nordic and Baltic countries will contain weapons and ammunition, according to Norway, which said specific contents are not made public for security reasons. Sweden said the package will strengthen Ukraine’s air-defense capabilities.
As of mid-October, NATO partners had funded four PURL packages, according to the alliance, which administers the initiative. That included the first package paid for by the Netherlands, a second one financed by Denmark, Sweden and Norway, a third funded by Germany and a fourth paid for by Canada.
The first two PURL packages included missiles for the Patriot air-defense system and HIMARS rocket artillery, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in September, with the first aid reportedly arriving that month.
Since August, the PURL initiative has provided about 75% of the missiles for Ukraine’s Patriot systems and about 90% of the missiles for other air defense systems supplied by partner countries, Ukrainian Minister of Defense Denys Shmyhal said in a social media post.
Together with the PURL package announced by the Nordic and Baltic countries, Ukraine will receive long-range 155mm artillery shells, HIMARS rockets and guided aerial bombs, according to the minister.
“This tranche of aid is critical for Ukraine’s defense and the protection of our citizens,” Shmyhal said.
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.
