Germany is to contribute at least €150 million to purchasing US military equipment for Ukraine, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Friday as he hosted European counterparts for talks in Berlin.
The "Group of Five" meeting included the defence ministers of France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Poland as well as the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas.
High on the agenda was maintaining support for Ukraine in its defence against Russia, with Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal also joining the meeting via video.
Pistorius said Russian President Vladimir Putin is clearly trying to make the winter as unbearable as possible for the Ukrainian population through continuous attacks, aiming to break the will of the Ukrainian people to resist.
It is hard to imagine a greater contempt for human life, Pistorius argued.
The ministers agreed on further purchases under NATO's Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) scheme, which aims to provide weapons manufactured in the United States to Kiev.
The initiative was a response to public demands from US President Donald Trump for European countries to step up their commitment to Ukraine instead of relying on Washington.
The latest package comes one day after Nordic and Baltic countries announced a joint $500-million commitment to buy US military equipment and munitions for Kiev.
In a sign of European concern over the future of the trans-Atlantic alliance, the Group of Five format was set up after Trump's election victory last year, aiming to reinforce European security and defence readiness.
Debate over Washington's commitment to NATO has largely been silenced since members agreed to hike defence spending targets in The Hague in June.
- Germany
- €150m
- US arms purchases
- Ukraine
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
