Canada to contribute US$200m to arms procurement programme for Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that Canada will contribute an additional US$200 million to the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), a programme that enables Kyiv's allies to procure US weapons for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy reported on a Washington-format meeting on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit in Yerevan.

"We held a detailed discussion on strengthening air defence: the production of necessary European systems and missiles, support for the PURL initiative, and ways to equip Europe with its own anti-ballistic capabilities.

I thank Canada for a new contribution to the PURL initiative. Prior to the meeting, Mark Carney announced an additional US$200 million," Zelenskyy wrote on X.

Zelenskyy reported earlier that three more countries joined the PURL programme during an informal summit of European Union member states in late April.

Prior to this, Ukraine's Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov stated that several countries had announced new contributions to the PURL scheme during a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (also known as the Ramstein format).