Slovenia allocates €43m for weapons procurement for Ukraine

Slovenia plans to allocate about €43 million by the end of the year to purchase US weapons for Ukraine's defence forces under the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative.

Slovenia announced its decision to join the PURL initiative in October, but details of its contribution were classified.

"This is a truly significant initiative to strengthen our capabilities, above all in the area of air defence. We greatly appreciate the fact that Slovenia plans to allocate around €43 million to this mechanism by the end of the year," Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote on social media following a meeting with his Slovenian counterpart Borut Sajovic.

The defence minister also said that Ukraine is ready to share its experience of using interceptor drones, long-range unmanned aircraft and other types of UAVs with Slovenia.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has reported that 21 countries have joined NATO's PURL initiative, which funds the procurement of US-made weapons for Ukraine, contributing over US$4 billion in total.

A recent meeting of NATO ministers in Brussels resulted in agreements on the supply of approximately US$1 billion worth of weapons under the PURL programme.