European military aid to Ukraine declined sharply this summer despite a recent NATO initiative in which member countries bought US weapons, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy said Tuesday.
“Europe is scaling back its overall military support. What will be crucial now is how the figures evolve in the autumn,” said Christoph Trebesch, head of the Ukraine Support Tracker and Research Director at the Kiel Institute.
Most of the military aid this summer was delivered via NATO’s Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), a mechanism launched by US President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in July that enables the purchase of US stockpiles.
Under the scheme, countries pay Washington for defence systems and munitions stored in US warehouses that are then shipped to Ukraine, preventing Kyiv from waiting too long for the delivery of weapons.
By the end of August, eight member countries of the military alliance — Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden — had participated, amounting to a total of 1.9 billion euros.
European countries, including the United Kingdom, have sent or earmarked a total of 83 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine between the start of the war, launched by Russia in February 2022, and the end of August 2025, compared with 64.6 billion euros allocated by the United States.
The United States was Ukraine’s main aid provider before Trump’s return to the White House on January 20, when he broke with his Democrat predecessor Joe Biden’s Ukraine support strategy.
Unlike military aid, financial and humanitarian aid have remained stable compared with the first semester of 2025, at 7.5 billion euros, despite no new US contributions.
“It is now crucial that this stability extends to military support as well, as Ukraine relies on it to sustain its defense efforts on the ground,” said Trebesch.
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