"Europe Pays, the U.S. Provides, NATO Fields"

"We remain clear-eyed about the fact the most effective deterrents to Russian aggression are: number one, a lethal, capable and European-led NATO, and number two, a combat-credible Ukrainian military able to defend itself and thereby continue to deter Russian aggression along NATO's border."

"If the war does not end, if there is no path to peace in the short term, then the United States, along with our allies, will take the steps necessary to impose costs on Russia for its continued aggression."

"[NATO countries must] turn words into action in the form of PURL investments. All countries around this table, no free riders."

"If we must take this step, the U.S. War Department stands ready to do our part in ways that only the United States can do."

"You get peace when you are strong, not when you use strong words or wag your finger. You get it when you have strong and real capabilities that adversaries respect. And I believe that's what NATO is doing. I believe that's what the PURL initiative is."  

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth 

 

"Today we heard from ally after ally about new contributions [from NATO members toward Ukraine's stock of military gear]."

"I'm really confident that we have the support from allies to buy from what the Americans provide in lethal and non-lethal aid." 

"Coming out of today’s meeting we have over half of all allies so more than 16, 17 allies now committing to PURL."

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaking at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels on Wednesday. (Virginia Mayo/AP)

 

It will be Europe, with the United States anxious to bow out as the leader in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which will become the major force leading NATO, for the future. The issue being addressed as it has been since 2022, is Russian territorial expansionist aspirations threatening Europe. The world's policeman under the Trump administration is prepared to resign its leading position theorizing that it is after all, Europe's dilemma more than it is that of the United States, and this being so, the baton is being handed over to European defense with background assistance and a robust cheering section from the United States.

 

This, the 76th-year transition of the Alliance. Prepared to fulfill its obligations, Secretary of State Hegseth assured his European NATO counterparts that the U.S. is behind them all the way -- not forward-leading, but fully supportive, although time will tell exactly how that is to be interpreted with a new administration's semi-isolationist, America-first sentiment. The new expression from this administration is that America expects other nations to be responsible for their own defenses. The message, loud and clear, has now been fully absorbed following its initial shock.

 

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says only Russian military sites would be targeted, if Ukraine got Tomahawks

 

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte was quick to assure Mr. Hegseth at the Wednesday meeting in Brussels that the commitment to Ukraine's defense against Vladimir Putin's dreams of a renascent Greater Russia patterned after the USSR is incontestably firm. Over half of the military alliance's 32 allies are pledging to provide the capital required to help embattled Ukraine purchase the U.S. weaponry required to enable Ukraine's courageous defense to be fully offensive against the Russian threat. The need to infuse cash into the situation is obvious as Kyiv's wartime funding is floundering.

 

Tomahawks have proven hard for Russian defenses to shoot down

 

 Following remarks from Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal, he was assured that the U.S. is prepared to continue performing its part in the conflict, including attempts at a  resolution that might lead to Russian agreement for a ceasefire and talks aimed at resolving the conflict, Mr. Hegseth emphasizing yet again that European allies must agree to primary responsibility for Europe's defence. At the same time he had praise for the increase of defense investments by the allies to address their own defense spending, along with aid to Ukraine.

 

The Priority Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative was of utmost importance, he stressed, in guiding NATO members in supplying Ukraine with the tools required to continue to hold its own with the Russian military, in the hopes that longer-range missiles will provide an insurmountable advantage finally to persuade Moscow that enough lives on either side have been lost, and the war must finally be concluded, to save the continent and the world from the prospect of a third world war.

 

The initiative to provide weapons to Ukraine under the PURL agreement, he observed, could be summed up as "Europe pays, the U.S. provides, NATO fields". 

 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks with Britain's Defense Secretary John Healey during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Oct. 15, 2025. | Omar Havana/AP