NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has welcomed fresh pledges of support for Ukraine after attending a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group on Tuesday.
The meeting was chaired by Germany and the United Kingdom, NATO informed on Wednesday.
Rutte said Allies had allocated more than $10bn over the past year to NATO’s PURL initiative and to US Foreign Military Sales for Ukraine.
He added that the total included $3.5bn from the EU’s Ukraine Support Loan.
PURL is a NATO initiative that supplies US military hardware paid for by NATO Allies and partner countries.
‘Utmost urgency’
Rutte told the gathering there was a need to support Ukraine with the “utmost urgency”, saying delays “cost human lives”, according to NATO.
He said the PURL initiative continued to get “critical equipment” into Ukraine and described this support as “uninterrupted.”
He also said the support was needed to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia, including from air attacks.
