PURL program needs to be filled, not enough done in Jan – Zelenskyy
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy pointed out the insufficient filling of the program for the purchase of U.S. weapons by partner countries for Ukraine under the name Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) in January of this year during a meeting of the Commander-in-Chief's Headquarters on Tuesday.
"Defense issues are key – missiles for air defense, production of interceptors, all necessary supplies. Contracts, financing – we provide this in full. It is important that there is a real and timely implementation of all agreements with our partners. The PURL program needs to be filled, and not enough was done in January. This is a task for our entire diplomatic team - both the Office of the President and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," Zelenskyy said in an evening video address on Tuesday.
He also reported on a conversation with U.S. Congressmen Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal, in particular, about programs to support Ukrainian air defense. "I am grateful for the unwavering bipartisan support of Congress. We are currently having very productive work with the President of the United States, with his team. We discussed the details of all this. I informed about the situation with Russian strikes, about the need for air defense. We talked about how additional pressure on Russia can provide strong diplomatic results. And it is important that the U.S. administration has as many tools as possible for the right pressure. We also talked about support programs that have not yet been fully implemented and can be used. In particular, this concerns the protection of the sky," the president said.
He reported that work continues on security guarantees and recovery programs with the United States. "We are really working so that in the near future there are possible formats for signing and approval, legal approval in the US Congress, in the Ukrainian parliament," Zelenskyy said.