Yehor Cherniev: Ukraine's partners at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly reaffirmed their readiness to assist us and expand support and cooperation
16 October 2025, 15:36
At the regular session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly held in Ljubljana, the Ukrainian delegation achieved good results in terms of political support for our country. The main areas of work concerned the expansion of the PURL programme, funding for Ukrainian arms production and the integration of our air defence with that of partner countries. For the first time, our European partners said that Ukraine needs weapons not only to deter the aggressor, but also to win back its land.
This was stated by Yehor Cherniev, MP, Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Defence and Intelligence, Head of the Permanent Delegation of Ukraine to the NATO PA.
"We have three main areas in which we are currently working with our partners. First and foremost, it is to increase the number of participants in the PURL programme, which is used to purchase weapons for Ukraine from the United States. We have held a number of meetings with various European countries that have confirmed that they are ready to join the programme, and some will continue to contribute to the PURL budget. The second area is financing Ukrainian arms production. Our partners understand that it is easier, faster and cheaper to finance our weapons because they meet the current realities of war. This applies to drones, interceptor drones, and long-range weapons that we are already producing ourselves," the politician said.
He added that following the meetings in Ljubljana, Slovenia announced its accession to the PURL programme.
According to the MP, the third issue discussed at the meetings during the NATO PA session was the creation of a so-called unified air defence shield for the western part of Ukraine.
"We propose that our air defence system should be integrated with the air defence systems of our partner countries, the NATO member states that are directly neighbours of ours. There is also some progress here, and this issue is already being discussed more at the technical level. A positive decision would allow us to free up air defence systems to some extent and transfer some of them to the central and eastern regions of Ukraine and protect our skies more effectively," the MP said.
He stressed that there are currently no limits on the provision of weapons from either the US or European partners.
"Previously, there were certain restrictions on the number of weapons transferred to Ukraine, as partners were afraid of an escalation in the war, including the use of nuclear weapons by russia. Now such fears have disappeared, and even US President Donald Trump says that russia is a "paper tiger". In recent years, russia itself has clearly shown what it is capable of. It is definitely not the second largest army in the world. And the Western world has the resources to help Ukraine not only survive, but also regain its lands," the politician concluded.