Trump administration officials have begun warning countries that U.S. weapons supplies to Ukraine may be interrupted in the coming months as the Pentagon prioritizes their use for the war in Iran.
The State Department has told allies that deliveries of munitions — especially Patriot air defense interceptors — could get disrupted, according to three European officials familiar with the talks. Secretary of State Marco Rubio planned to speak about this with allies at the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting near Paris on Friday, according to two of the officials.
The warning comes amid fears from European and Asian countries that the U.S. would reroute weapons they have already bought to restock dwindling supplies. And it threatens to upend a key program for Ukraine in which allies purchase weapons from the U.S. for Kyiv.
At least some allies have “received assurances” from the U.S. that those deliveries, under an initiative known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List or PURL, have not been redirected, according to one of the European officials. “That, of course, doesn’t say anything about the future.”
The person, like others interviewed, was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Worries in European capitals heightened after The Washington Post reported Thursday that the Pentagon was considering diverting weapons from the initiative to refill U.S. stockpiles.
But some were assuaged. Heorhii Tykhyi, the spokesperson for Ukrainian foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Rubio had not informed him about future disruptions to PURL deliveries during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G7 on Friday, but declined to give further details of their discussion.
And other European officials have taken solace that delivery delays would not happen immediately, especially after White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said this week that the U.S. military is “very close” to meeting its objectives in Iran.
The Pentagon declined to comment on specifics. “America’s military is the most powerful in the world, and we will ensure that U.S. forces and those of our allies and partners have what they need to fight and win,” it said in a statement.
The State Department did not respond to requests for comment.
The embassies of the UK, France, Canada and Japan in Washington also did not respond to requests for comment. The EU, Italian and German embassies declined to comment.
NATO alliance leaders, in the run-up to the meeting, tried to stress the program hadn’t been disrupted.
“I can assure you that the critical support from the United States into Ukraine paid for by allies [under] PURL continues to flow,” NATO chief Mark Rutte told reporters Thursday in Brussels.
And NATO spokesperson Allison Hart insisted nothing had changed. “Everything that NATO allies and partners have paid for through PURL has been delivered or continues to flow to Ukraine,” she said.
Any changes in the initiative, which was hashed out between Trump and Rutte at the White House last summer, would face significant blowback.
Diversion of PURL shipments to the Gulf would be “unacceptable,” said one NATO diplomat. While the impact “would depend on the delay” for each type of equipment, the implications could be “dire,” the person said.
Clea Caulcutt, Daniella Cheslow, Phelim Kine and Veronika Melkozerova contributed to this report.
US officials tell allies Iran war could delay Ukraine weapons shipments
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