Ukraine expects to have around $3.5 billion next month in a fund to purchase weapons from the United States to continue its more-than-three-year-long fight against the Russian invader, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday.
The financial arrangement, known as the Ukraine Primary Request List (PURL), collects contributions from NATO member states, in addition to the United States, to purchase American weapons, ammunition, and equipment.
“We have received more than $2 billion from our partners specifically for the PURL program,” Zelensky said at a joint press conference in Kyiv with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.
“We will receive additional funds in October. I believe we will have around $3.5–3.6 billion,” he added.
Zelensky did not provide details on which weapons would arrive in the first shipments, but he emphasized that they will include missiles for Patriot air defense systems and ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).
The end of the war in Ukraine still seems distant, despite months of U.S.-led peace efforts.
Patriot systems are essential for defense against Russian missile attacks, while HIMARS systems have significantly strengthened the Ukrainian army’s precision strike capabilities.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Russia’s readiness for peace talks, telling reporters on Wednesday that “we remain open to negotiations and prefer to resolve the Ukrainian crisis through political and diplomatic means.”
However, Moscow has opposed key proposals, causing peace talks to stall.
Meanwhile, the latest Russian airstrikes overnight caused disruptions to Ukraine’s railway and energy services, officials said on Wednesday. Additionally, a Russian bomb hit a city in the southern Kherson region, injuring three women and a 3-year-old girl, regional head Oleksandr Prokudin reported.
