NATO to coordinate regular and large-scale arm deliveries to Ukraine.
Most will be bought in the US
[August 06, 2025]
By LORNE COOK
BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO has started coordinating regular deliveries of
large weapons packages to Ukraine after the Netherlands said it would
provide air defense equipment, ammunition and other military aid worth
500 million euros ($578 million).
Sweden also announced Tuesday it would contribute $275 million to a
joint effort along with its Nordic neighbors Denmark and Norway to
provide $500 million worth of air defenses, anti-tank weapons,
ammunition and spare parts.
Two deliveries of equipment, most of it bought in the United States, are
expected this month, although the Nordic package is expected to arrive
in September. The equipment is supplied based on Ukraine’s priority
needs on the battlefield. NATO allies then locate the weapons and
ammunition and send them on.
“Packages will be prepared rapidly and issued on a regular basis,” NATO
said Monday.
Air defense systems are in greatest need. The United Nations has said
that Russia’s relentless pounding of urban areas behind the front line
has killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians.
Russia’s bigger army is also making slow but costly progress along the
1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. Currently, it is waging an
operation to take the eastern city of Pokrovsk, a logistical hub whose
fall could allow it to drive deeper into Ukraine.
European allies and Canada are buying most of the equipment they plan to
send from the United States, which has greater stocks of ready military
materiel, as well as more effective weapons. The Trump administration is
not giving any arms to Ukraine.
The new deliveries will come on top of other pledges of military
equipment.
The Kiel Institute, which tracks support to Ukraine, estimates that as
of June, European countries had provided 72 billion euros ($83 billion)
worth of military aid since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in
February 2022, compared to $65 billion in U.S. aid.
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Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said that “American air
defense systems and munitions, in particular, are crucial for
Ukraine to defend itself.” Announcing the deliveries Monday, he said
Russia’s attacks are “pure terror, intended to break Ukraine.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to the
Netherlands, posting on social media that “Ukraine, and thus the
whole of Europe, will be better protected from Russian terror.”
He said the deliveries are coming “at a time when Russia is trying
to scale up its strikes. This will definitely help protect the lives
of our people!”
Germany said Friday it will deliver two more Patriot air defense
systems to Ukraine in the coming days. It agreed to the move after
securing assurances that the U.S. will prioritize the delivery of
new Patriots to Germany to backfill its stocks. These weapon systems
are only made in the U.S.
As an organization, NATO provides only non-lethal assistance to
Ukraine like uniforms, tents, medical supplies and logistics
support. The 32-nation military alliance has mostly sought to
protect NATO territory from possible Russian attack and avoid being
dragged into a war against a nuclear power.
But its support role has expanded since U.S. President Donald Trump
took office in January, even as his administration insists European
allies must now take care of their own security and that of their
war-ravaged neighbor. Trump has made no public promise of weapons or
economic support for Ukraine.
Trump said on July 28 that the U.S. is "going to be sending now
military equipment and other equipment to NATO, and they’ll be doing
what they want, but I guess it’s for the most part working with
Ukraine.”
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Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Kirsten Grieshaber and
David Keyton in Berlin contributed to this report.
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