Germany will co-finance another “PURL package” worth at least €150 million as part of its support for Ukraine. This was announced by Germany’s Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius at a press conference in Berlin following today’s meeting of the “Group of Five”.
This is already the second package in which Germany is involved. In mid-August of this year, the German Ministry of Defence announced that it would finance an initial package worth up to $500 million through the PURL mechanism.
Further details were only made public about two months later. At a press conference ahead of a UDCG meeting on the 15th of October, Pistorius disclosed that the German funds would be used to finance air defence systems, ammunition for Ukraine’s MIM-104 Patriot fire units, radar systems, ammunition for HIMARS and M270 MLRS, and other ammunition.
It is not known whether the weapon systems and ammunition financed at that time have already arrived in Ukraine. Furthermore, it is also not known what exactly will be financed with the funds announced today. In response to my enquiry, the German Ministry of Defence did not wish to comment on this matter at this time.
Most likely, the details of the package are still being discussed with the other co-financiers, who are unknown at this point, but the focus is likely to be on supplying Ukraine with fresh ammunition, especially in the coming winter months.
PURL – What is it?
The PURL mechanism, or more precisely the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, is an initiative mechanism of the US and NATO through which European countries and Canada can finance US-made weapon systems, ammunition and more for Ukraine.
In doing so, the financing countries are specifically addressing the urgent needs of the Ukrainian army. Basically, this involves military goods that are either not produced by the European industry or can be delivered more quickly by the US.
A prominent example of this is the supply of ammunition to Ukraine for the US-manufactured MIM-104 Patriot air defence systems. These provide currently the only serious protection against ballistic missiles, which Russia uses very regularly against civilian targets in Ukraine in particular.
However, only the United States can supply the ten or so fire units with sufficient quantities of new ammunition. For example, the German Armed Forces’ stocks have already been severely depleted over the past two and a half years, while other countries such as Poland generally refuse to supply Patriot ammunition to Ukraine.
Taken together, various partner countries of Ukraine have made at least €3 billion available in recent months for the purchase of US military equipment, some of which has already been delivered to strengthen the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
In addition to today’s announcement that Germany will provide at least another €150 million, it was announced yesterday that Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden will jointly finance another package worth $500 million.
Overall, Ukraine hopes to receive annual assistance of at least $12 billion, which corresponds to a total of 24 packages (two packages worth $500 million per month).
Note
At today’s press conference, Germany’s Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius announced that the first PURL package financed by Germany is worth €500 million.
However, the reality is that it includes military aid amounting to $500 million. This was confirmed to me upon enquiry by a German Ministry of Defence spokesperson.
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