NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte welcomed the announcement and underscored its urgency. “Our Nordic and Baltic Allies are stepping up to fund a further package of critical military equipment for Ukraine,” said the Secretary General.
Rutte noted that the deliveries are already underway and critical as winter approaches. “This equipment is extremely important as Ukraine enters the winter months, and deliveries through PURL are flowing into Ukraine. NATO Allies will continue to deliver essential equipment and supplies,” he said.
The ministers of defence from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden, along with the foreign minister of Iceland, met in Helsinki to announce the pledge. In a joint statement, they said: “We reaffirm our commitment to Ukraine’s security, which is fundamental to European security. We are united in pursuing a sustainable and just peace, in full respect of Ukraine’s sovereignty and the legitimate aspirations of its people.”
The statement stressed the long-term nature of the support. “We commit to sustaining long-term, predictable, and coordinated military support to Ukraine, including through capability development, defence industrial cooperation, and strengthening Ukraine’s ability to deter future Russian aggression,” the ministers said.
They described the $500 million contribution as a concrete step to enhance Ukraine’s defence. “To demonstrate our support, we have jointly decided to contribute to the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative with $500 million package. This initiative provides a mechanism for the purchasing of critical defence equipment from the United States, contributing directly to Ukraine’s resilience and defence against the Russian aggression. This is one of the many ways our nations support Ukraine,” the joint statement read.
The ministers also addressed the broader threat posed by the war. “Russia’s war of aggression is a long-term threat to European security, the transatlantic community and the rules-based international order. We will not allow it to succeed. Ukraine’s security is directly connected to ours,” they concluded.
Finland’s Minister of Defence Antti Häkkänen highlighted the importance of urgent support. “This joint pledge to contribute the PURL initiative will further strengthen the commitment of the Nordic and Baltic countries to supporting Ukraine. It is crucial that Ukraine receives critical defence materiel quickly,” he said.
Häkkänen also placed the pledge within Finland’s wider assistance efforts. “For Finland, this is a third element of our military assistance to Ukraine, the first two being the materiel handovers by the Finnish Defence Forces and the support programme for the Finnish industry,” he stated.
The PURL initiative was launched in July 2025 by the President of the United States and the NATO Secretary General. Funded by European Allies and Canada, it is designed to rapidly deliver US-sourced defence materiel to Ukraine through a series of coordinated packages.
