Ukraine expects $3.5 billion fund for US weapons to sustain fight
against Russia, Zelenskyy says
[September 18, 2025]
By SAMYA KULLAB
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine expects there will be around $3.5 billion
by next month in a fund to buy weapons from the United States and help
sustain its more than three-year fight against Russia’s all-out
invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.
The financial arrangement known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements
List, or PURL, pools contributions from NATO members, except the United
States, to purchase American weapons, munitions and equipment.
“We received more than $2 billion from our partners specifically for the
PURL program," Zelenskyy said at a joint news conference in Kyiv with
visiting European Parliament President Roberta Metsola. "We will receive
additional money in October. I think we will have somewhere around
$3.5-3.6 billion.”
Zelenskyy declined to provide details of what weapons the first
shipments would include, but said that they would definitely contain
missiles for Patriot air defense missile systems and munitions for the
High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS.
An end to the war appears no closer, despite months of U.S.-led peace
efforts.
The Patriot systems are vital to defend against Russian missile attacks.
The HIMARS systems have significantly bolstered the Ukrainian military’s
precision-strike capability.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reaffirmed Russia’s readiness for peace
talks, telling reporters on Wednesday that “we remain open for
negotiations and prefer to settle the Ukrainian crisis by political and
diplomatic means.”
However, Moscow has raised objections about key proposals and
negotiations haven't moved forward.
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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a joint press
conference with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola in
Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy
Maloletka)
The latest Russian overnight aerial attacks caused disruption to
Ukrainian rail and power services, officials said Wednesday. In
addition, a Russian glide bomb struck a town in the southern Kherson
region of Ukraine, wounding three women and a 3-year-old girl,
regional head Oleksandr Prokudin said.
Meanwhile, a U.S.-Ukraine fund devised to spur investments in the
Ukrainian mineral sector is set to launch with $150 million of seed
capital, senior Ukrainian officials said Wednesday.
The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation agency will
commit $75 million to the fund, with Ukraine matching that
contribution, Ukrainian Economy Minister Oleksii Sobolev said.
“This is enough to launch the first significant investments,”
Sobolev said, describing the fund as a “beacon” that could draw
additional support from other international institutions.
The U.S.-Ukraine deal on developing the Ukrainian mineral sector was
signed in April. It gives the U.S. preferential access to new
Ukrainian mining projects and is meant to spur reconstruction and
enable continued military aid to Ukraine from the U.S.
Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said that the fund would initially
focus on energy, infrastructure and critical mineral projects, with
a goal of financing three projects by the end of 2026.
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Hanna Arhirova and Illia Novikov contributed to this report.
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