BRUSSELS (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Wednesday called on NATO allies to increase spending on purchases of U.S. weapons for Ukraine, following a report that highlighted a sharp decline in military support for Kyiv in July and August.
“You get peace when you are strong. Not when you use strong words or wag your fingers, you get it when you have strong and real capabilities that adversaries respect,” he told reporters ahead of a meeting with his NATO counterparts at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels.
Hegseth urged allies to ramp up investment in the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) program, which replaced U.S. arms donations to Ukraine and now requires allies to pay for U.S. weapons deliveries.
“Our expectation today is that more countries donate even more, that they purchase even more to provide for Ukraine, to bring that conflict to a peaceful conclusion.”
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said he expected further pledges, noting that $2 billion already had been committed through the mechanism.
However, this amount falls short of the $3.5 billion Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had hoped to secure by October.
Sweden, Estonia, and Finland pledged contributions on Wednesday, but countries including Spain, Italy, France, and Britain have faced criticism for holding back.
Ukraine remains heavily reliant on U.S. weapons as it braces for another winter of conflict with Russia.
The Kiel Institute for the World Economy reported on Tuesday that military aid to Ukraine fell by 43% in July and August compared with the first half of the year.
According to the institute, most military support now flows through the PURL initiative, which by August had been joined by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold,Charlotte Van Campenhout, Inti Landauro, Makini Brice; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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